FOREIGN MISSIONARIES 
* IN ACTION * 



B Y 



H A R T M A N 




THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 

Price, 15 Cents Each; $1.50 per Doz.; $10 per 100, Postpaid 



Foreign Missionaries 
in Action 



THIRTEEN STUDIES OF THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
WORK OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 



By 
L. O. HARTMAN 



Prepared under the direction of the Editor of Sunday School Publications 
and the Committee on Curriculum of the Board of Sunday Schools 




THE METHODIST ROOK CONCERN 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 






Copyright, 1918, by 
L. O. HARTMAN 



©CI.A506166 

OCT -5 1918 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I 

Introductory — Suggestions to Teachers 5 

I. A Century's Achievements 7 

II. The Missionary as He Is 12 

III. Facing the Task 16 

IV. The Evangelistic Movement 20 



II 

Suggestions to Teachers 24 

V. Medicine and Superstition 25 

VI. In School and College 29 

VII. Training the Hand and the Eye 33 

VIII. The Missionary Printing Press 37 

III 

Suggestions to Teachers 41 

IX. Women's Work for Women 43 

X. Sunday Schools Beyond the Seas 47 

XI. New Lives for Old 51 

XII. The Leaven of Christianity 55 

XIII. The Dawn of a New Day 59 



Teaching the New Course "Foreign Missionaries in Action" 

INTRODUCTORY 



IT is the purpose of this course to make the 
student see the movement in foreign 
fields as it is actually going on. It is clearly 
impossible in one quarter to cover all the 
ground or even to treat adequately those sub- 
jects under consideration, but it is hoped that 
adult Bible classes may supplement their 
study by outside reading. Thus it may be the 
means of leading many to a wide familiarity 
with the whole enterprise of foreign missions. 
The method of presentation in each case will 
be, first, a Bible passage as a keynote; sec- 
ond, a human-interest story illustrating con- 
cretely the topic of the lesson ; third, a dis- 
cussion of this topic in its wider aspects, 
including important supplementary facts. 
Each lesson will conclude with a number of 
pertinent themes for class discussion. The 
general plan of the course covers various 
types of missionary activity, using as back- 
grounds the work in various world-fields. In 
this way the student may become acquainted 
not only with the types of work in which the 
church is engaged beyond the seas, but also 
with some of the countries in which she is 
represented. 

Each month a few specific plans covering 
the lesson for that month will be given in ad- 
dition to the general suggestions offered here. 
Special attention should be given by the 
teacher to his own personal preparation, since 
the course involves influences far-reaching 
beyond all possible calculation. The success 
of our Kingdom building in the very ends of 
the earth, and possibly whole life careers of 
individuals depend upon the care and thor- 
oughness with which these world issues are 
presented. The instructor ought, therefore, 
to understand at the start that these studies 
deal with the logical outcome of gospel 
teaching, that foreign missions are the 
very continuation of the acts of the apos- 
tles, and that without the missionary spirit 
it is impossible to be a Christian. Earnest, 
thoughtful, definite prayer on the whole sub- 
ject is essential. 

Moreover, the teacher should engage in a 
general preparation on outstanding mission- 
ary facts through reading and correspond- 
ence with missionaries on the field, by attend- 
ing missionary meetings, and in such other 
ways as may be possible. The current reports 
of the Board of Foreign Missions, the Wom- 
an's Foreign Missionary Society, and the 
Board of Sunday Schools, with their pam- 
phlet literature, will prove invaluable for ref- 
erence work. Every teacher should also sub- 
scribe to World Outlook, 150 Fifth Avenue, 
New York, and make large use of this excel- 
lent, fully illustrated magazine in teaching 



the lesson. Let him urge the members of the 
class to subscribe for the fresh view it brings 
of the world-field. An Atlas of Methodist 
Mission Fields (twenty-five cents, from the 
Board of Foreign Missions) should be in the 
hands of every teacher. A comprehensive 
catalogue of missionary educational material 
in the Sunday schools, both general and 
in connection with the "Partnership Plan," 
will be sent free on application from the office 
of the Board of Sunday Schools, 58 East 
Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois. Spe- 
cial information concerning books and meth- 
ods may be secured from Ralph E. Diffen- 
dorfer, Educational Secretary, Board of For- 
eign Missions, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York. 

The following books of a general character 
will prove helpful. They may be ordered 
through The Methodist Book Concern: 

The Call of the World, By W. E. Doughty. 

The Gospel and the World. By J. H. Old- 
ham. 

The Evangelization of the World in This 
Generation. By John R. Mott. 

The Why and Row of Foreign Missions. By 
A. J. Brown. 

Growth of the Missionary Concept. By 
John F. Goucher. 

The Modern Call of Missions. By James S. 
Dennis. 

Social Aspects of Foreign Missions. By W. 
H. P. Faunce. 

Report of the Edinburgh Conference (9 
volumes.) These small volumes each deal 
with some specific aspect of mission work as 
The Church in the Mission Field, The Mission- 
ary Message, The Home Base, Missions and 
Governments. 

Christian Missions and Social Progress. 
By James S. Dennis (3 volumes). 

World Atlas of Christian Missions. 

In addition we recommend for suggestions 
as to the teaching of missions : 

Missionary Education in Home and School. 
By Ralph E. Diftendorfer. 

Missionary Methods for Sunday School 
Workers. By George H. Trull. 

Several methods of teaching the lessons are 
practicable, but it is recommended that 
strong emphasis be placed on class discussion 
and that the teacher encourage intelligent 
questioning and class participation. Open 
the sessions with a short, earnest, pertinent 
prayer and, if practicable, a good missionary 
hymn. Conduct a very brief review of the 
study of the previous Sunday. Have some 
member give the gist of the lesson story for 
the day, then lead and supplement the dis- 
cussion of the themes printed at the end of 
each lesson which have been assigned the 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



previous week to various members. Sum up 
carefully at the close. 

Vitalize the whole plan by making large 
use of striking mottoes and wall charts, 
changing them from Sunday to Sunday to fit 
the themes for the day. Utilize maps and 
locate places mentioned in the lessons. 
(Large maps may be secured from the Board 
of Foreign Missions, 150 Fifth Avenue, New 
York.) Also the use of models of native 
homes, utensils, etc., will help to visualize 
the country backgrounds. Have a returned 
missionary speak for five minutes, or give a 
fifteen-minute stereopticon lecture before the 
class. (Write the Board of Foreign Missions, 
the Board of Sunday Schools, or Rev. W. H. 
Leech, 6728 Jones Avenue, N. W., Seattle, 
Washington, about the rental of slides.) 
Read letters from missionaries now on the 
field. Secure a good working library of mis- 
sionary books consisting of those mentioned 
above and others to be suggested later, for 
the use of the class. If possible, arrange for 
some mid-week lectures or entertainments 
featuring foreign missions under the aus- 
pices of the class. Emphasize missionary giv- 
ing and, if possible, induce your members to 
take up the support of some special work or 
worker in the foreign field. Make it a habit 
also between Sundays to carry forward the 
teaching by personal conversations with the 
members of your group. 

Special Suggestions on the January 
Lessons 

Lesson I. This is an historical lesson, and 
great care, therefore, should be exercised in 
preparing and teaching it so as to make the 
whole theme alive with human interest. Lo- 
cate the fields on a world map. Use charts 
for comparison of facts, figures, and extent of 
fields. Emphasize the many-sidedness and 
comprehensiveness of our Christianization 
movement. Secure literature on the Cente- 
nary from the Board of Foreign Missions and 
explain the plans of this celebration to the 
class. Consult the books and reports men- 
tioned under General Suggestions and also 
The Present World Situation, by John R. 
Mott ; Missionary Growth of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, by H. K. Carroll; The 
Stone of Help, by A. B. Leonard ; and Meth- 
odist Episcopal Missions, a three volume his- 
tory by Reid and Gracey. 

Lesson II. If possible, talk with a re- 
turned missionary and question him as to his 
call, preparation, and work. Utilize letters 
from missionaries on the field. Get cata- 
logues from institutions offering courses for 
prospective missionaries, and note the sub- 
jects related to missionary endeavor. Find 



out how many in your church are connected 
in some vital way with the work of world 
evangelization and report results to the class. 
Among reference books read The Foreign 
Missionary, by A. J. Brown ; The Missionary 
and His Critics, by James L. Barton; The 
Foreign Missionary and His Work, by W. E. 
G. Cunningham; My Missionary Apprentice- 
ship, by James M. Thoburn; The Why and 
How of Foreign Missions, by Arthur J. 
Brown ; The Call, Qualifications and Prepara- 
tion of Candidates for Missionary Service, 
published by the Student Volunteer Move- 
ment. 

Lesson III. Have some one point out the 
different varieties of missionary difficulties 
embodied in the lesson story. Illustrate by 
means of pictures some of these problems. 
Show the connection between those practical 
conditions and the thinking of the people. 
Make a survey of some one field, showing 
opportunities and needs to make vivid the 
problems of administration. Plan a week- 
night illustrated lecture and secure slides for 
A Visit to Eastern and Southern Asia. A few 
reference books are as follows: Nathan Sites, 
by F. N. Sites ; William Albert Mansell, Mis- 
sionary, by L. A. Core; Social Evils in the 
Non-Christian World, by James S. Dennis 
(from Christian Missions and Social Prog- 
ress) ; Popular Aspects of Oriental Reli- 
gions, by L. O. Hartman. 

Lesson IV. Be sure that the class gets 
clearly the idea of the larger evangelism nec- 
essary if the Kingdom is to be built in for- 
eign fields. Secure special literature on the 
Mass Movement from that commission, 150 
Fifth Avenue, New York. Illustrate the les- 
son with pictures of churches, native Chris- 
tians, and native preachers, and tell incidents 
showing the growth and strength of the 
church in foreign fields. Visualize the evan- 
gelistic opportunity by means of charts. Lo- 
cate on the map Mass Movement areas in 
India and also other fields where there is an 
unusual response. Arrange week-night stere- 
opticon lecture on "The Mass Movement in 
India." Books bearing on this theme are: 
God's Missionary Plan for the World, by J. 
W. Bashford; India Awakening, by Sherwood 
Eddy; pamphlet, India's Mass Movement, by 
Frank W. Warne ; Rising Churches in Non- 
Christian Lands, by Arthur J. Brown; The 
Decisive Hour of Christian Missions, by John 
R. Mott ; Missionary Programs and Incidents, 
by George H. Trull. 

The subjects for next month are : February 
3, "Medicine and Superstition;" February 
10, "In School and College;" February 17, 
"Training the Hand and the Eye;" February 
24, "The Missionary Printing Press." 



LESSON I 

A CENTURY'S ACHIEVEMENTS 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall 
he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father." 

Milestones on the Way 



Jesus Christ said, "Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the gospel to the whole creation." 
John Wesley in like vein declared, "The world 
is my parish." It is not strange, therefore, 
in view of the command of the Master and the 
claim of the great founder that Methodism 
should have a glorious missionary history. 
We here in this country are under heavy obli- 
gation to the early fathers for their mission- 
ary zeal, for we are what we are, not only as 
a church, but as a nation, largely because As- 
bury and his coworkers labored so faithfully 
under the hard conditions of primitive days. 
We may, therefore, well thank John Wesley 
and the mother church in England for the 
"foreign missionaries" sent out to America in 
the early years. Founded in this missionary 
spirit, American Methodism has ever kept her 
zeal for others burning and has literally sent 
her representatives to the "uttermost parts of 
the earth." 

Small Beginnings 

The General Conference as early as 1812 
started a definite missionary movement, and 
in 1819 there was organized the "Missionary 
and Bible Society of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in America." We read the first an- 
nual report of the new society with interest, 
for the income that year was $823.04, of which 
twenty-seven cents was expended in postage, 
$58.31 for printing, and $27.18 for blank 
books, leaving a tidy little surplus of $737.28 
in the treasury. Contrast these figures with 
those of the Board of Foreign Missions 
for the year 1917, with its total receipts of 
$1,940,304.02 and total disbursements of 
$1,947,692.70, not to mention the startling 
financial figures of other boards and organiza- 
tions now also helping to carry forward the 
undertakings of the original society, and one 
gets a vivid impression of the marvelous 
growth of the missionary enterprise of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church during the cen- 
tury just coming to a close. 



At first the actual work of the new society 
was confined to the then "Western frontiers" 
of the country, embracing "Florida, the State 
of Louisiana, and the Missouri Territory," 
though in the first annual report reference 
was made to the "map of the world" and to 
those "in the darkness of heathenism." Suc- 
cess early crowned the efforts of the society, 
especially in the work with the Indians. In- 
deed, the favorable response of these wild 
tribes to the preaching of the gospel was no 
small factor in indicating the necessity of a 
missionary organization. In 1820 the General 
Conference modified the name of the society 
so that its title became "The Missionary So- 
ciety of the Methodist Episcopal Church," 
embracing the missionary endeavors of the 
church both at home and abroad. This organ- 
ization continued to exercise these functions 
until 1907, when the work was divided and 
the Board of Foreign Missions was charged 
with the care of missionary efforts in foreign 
lands and the Board of Home Missions and 
Church Extension with the administration of 
home missionary interests. 

Very early in the history of the missionary 
enterprise the leaders of the movement re- 
vealed the fact that they intended to live up 
to their name of "Methodists," for the work 
was organized systematically and founded on 
the best business principles, a condition that 
still obtains to-day in the prosecution of this 
vast task of world evangelization. In 1836 Dr. 
Nathan Bangs was made the paid correspond- 
ing secretary of the society, and in 1844 a 
general missionary committee was created, 
whose business it was to indicate the fields to 
be occupied, the number of missionaries to 
be set aside for each field, and the necessary 
appropriations for their support. It was com- 
posed of all the bishops, the corresponding 
and recording secretaries, and the treasurers 
of the society, together with a number of the 
board of managers, a body that from the be- 
ginning has had to do with the details of ad- 



8 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IX ACTION 



ministration, and the representatives of the 
various General Conference districts. This 
form of organization continued until the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1916, when the general 
committee was discontinued and in its place 
the Board of Managers, with an executive 
committee, assumed all the functions of ad- 
ministration. 

The First Foreign Missionary 

In 1831 a Methodist preacher by the name 
of Melville B. Cox, a native of Hallowell, 
Maine, wrote from the 
Southland, where he was 
trying to recuperate his 
shattered health: "I 
long to preach the gos- 
pel to those who have 
never heard it. My soul 
burns with impatient 
desire to hold up the 
cross of Christ on mis- 
sionary ground." Later 
in a conversation with 
Bishop Hedding he pro- 
posed offering himself 
for South America, but 
the bishop suggested Li- 
beria as a suitable field 
in which to begin mis- 
sionary work. To this 
suggestion young Cox 
replied, "If the Lord 
will, I think I shall go." 
When, later, the matter 
was finally settled, he 
wrote home: "The epis- 
copacy has concluded to 
send me to Liberia. I 
hail it as the most joy- 
ful appointment from 
them that I ever re- 
ceived. At the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1832 
he was set apart for the 
foreign field and sailed soon afterward. 

Visiting at Wesley an University just be- 
fore his departure, however, he gave utter- 
ance to the famous sentence that has ever 
since been the watchword of Methodism, not 
only in relation to Africa, but to the other 
fields of the church. A friend warned him 
that he had better take a coflin with him to 
Africa. Cox replied, "If I die in Africa, come 
out, come out and write my epitaph." 
"What," said the friend, "shall I write?" 
"Write," said Methodism's pioneer mission- 
ary, "Let a thousand fall before Africa be 
given up." The warning of the Wesley an 
friend proved to be a real prophecy. With 
less than four months of actual service, Mel- 
ville B. Cox was stricken with tropical fever 
and died in far-away Liberia. But in this 




Melville B. Cox 
The First Foreign Missionary of American Methodism 



short period he had laid the foundations of 
Methodist missions in Africa and his brave 
words have been the inspiration of thousands 
of others who since that day have followed 
in his footsteps. 

Years of Marvelous Growth 

It is impossible in a brief historical sketch 
to tell the full story of the opening and de- 
velopment of each of the great world fields 
in which Methodism is to-day represented. 
The best we can do is to give but an outline 
of this century of mar- 
velous growth. After 
the death of Cox in Af- 
rica, five new mission- 
aries were sent out that 
same year to take his 
place. Of these, two 
died and two others 
were unable to stand 
the climate. But the 
work was not aban- 
doned. William Taylor, 
afterwards a bishop. 
who had carried his 
burning message to In- 
dia and South America, 
finally also arrived at 
Inhambane and at once 
planned to extend the 
Liberia Mission and to 
start new missions in 
Angola and on the 
Congo. Later, Bishop 
J. C. Hartzell was set 
aside by the church to 
superintend the work 
in Africa and brought 
his genius for organiza- 
tion to this most diffi- 
cult task. 

To-day, in spite of 
the hard conditions of 
climate and disease 
and the awful evils of slave trade and op- 
pression that have characterized the Dark 
Continent, Africa has not been "given up," 
for we have there the Liberia Annual Con- 
ference and five other Mission Conferences 
operating under five different national flags ; 
those of Liberia, Portugal. Belgium, France, 
and Great Britain. As we have seen above, 
the Missionary Society early planned a mis- 
sion in South America, but it was not until 
1836 that Rev. Fountain E. Pitts, and later 
Justin Spaulding, John Dempster, and Dan- 
iel P. Kidder, established the work on that 
continent. Here, under unique conditions 
and in a strong Roman Catholic environment, 
the missionary movement has nevertheless 
prospered, and we find at this date organized 
Methodism in Argentina, Paraguay, Bru- 



A CENTURY'S ACHIEVEMENTS 



guay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and since 1906 in 
Panama. 

The story of our operations in China has 
teemed with interest ever since the Rev. J. D. 
Collins and the Rev. M. C. White and wife 
set foot in old Foochow in the year 1847. 
Here were some four hundred million people 



India the gospel spread throughout the em- 
pire, to Burma, to Malaysia and the Philip- 
pines, over a territory embracing a popula- 
tion of more than three hundred and fifty 
millions of people. In this vast stretch are 
now eight vigorous Conferences and one Mis- 
sion Conference, the leaders of which report 




OUR FIRST MISSIONARY HEADQUARTERS IN INDIA. THE HOME OF WILLIAM BUTLER 



representing one of the oldest civilizations in 
the world. The task of evangelization was 
then, and still is, full of difficulties. For ten 
long years these pioneers of the work, with 
their associates, among whom were S. L. 
Baldwin and Isaac W. Wiley, afterward 
bishop, toiled without tangible results until 
1857, when the first convert, Ting Ang, was 
baptized. With this beginning in Foochow, 
plans developed rapidly, for efforts soon were 
made in other parts of that vast land. The 
last report of the Board of Foreign Missions 
reveals splendid records for the previous year 
in six Conferences, including the Yenping 
Conference just organized and one Mission 
Conference. 

Who can tell the tale of Methodist growth 
in India and do justice to the situation? 
Here are strange religions, revolting customs, 
unspeakable poverty and disease, besides the 
rigors of a tropical climate. And yet, in spite 
of the problems, converts have multiplied tre- 
mendously and the Kingdom is being estab- 
lished. William Butler began work in Ba- 
reilly in March, 1856, just in time to be 
caught in the midst of the Sepoy rebellion. 
He narrowly escaped death in that great 
mutiny, and in 1857 was joined by Rev. 
J. L. Humphrey, who baptized our first con- 
vert in India. In 1864 the India Mission Con- 
ference was organized, and soon afterward 
the great missionary, James M. Thoburn, ar- 
rived on the scene. The story of his life is 
one of marvelous faith and achievement, for 
under his leadership as missionary bishop of 



such a wealth of opportunity as constitutes a 
real embarrassment to the missionary forces. 

The Church in Europe 

The church in Europe was the outcome of 
evangelizing work carried on here at home 
under the influence of which the Germans 
William Xast and Ludwig S. Jacoby and the 
Scandinavians Olaf G. Hedstrom, Olaf P. 
Petersen, J. P. Larsson and C. Willerup were 
converted. Jacoby went back to Germany 
and opened work in that country in 1849, Pe- 
tersen did the same for Norway in 1853, while 
Larsson and Willerup started the mission in 
Denmark in 1857. In 1871 the Missionary So- 
ciety sent Leroy M. Vernon to Italy, where 
under the shadow of the Vatican the work 
started at that tirffe still prospers, in spite of 
the opposition of thMloman Catholic Church. 
Methodism is not only represented in these 
European countries, but also in Sweden, Fin- 
land, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, 
Bulgaria, and France. 

In 1S73 William Butler, the founder of the 
mission in India, was sent by the society to 
Mexico, where, with Bishop Gilbert Haven, a 
beginning was made which, in spite of revo- 
lutions and Roman Catholic hatred of Prot- 
estantism, has grown into a strong Annual 
Conference representing more than three 
thousand members. 

It was also in 1873 that R. S. Maclay, 
Julius Soper, J. C. Davison, and M. C. Harris 
were sent to Japan. In this rapidly develop- 
ing nation there is increasing need of em- 



10 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



phasis on Christian principles, and the mis- 
sion has tried, with pronounced success, to 
meet this need. Two Annual Conferences re- 
sulted from the enterprise of 1873. In 1907, 
however, the Japan Methodist Church was 
formed from those organizations belonging 
to the Methodist Church of Canada, the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South, and the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. Our Board of For- 
eign Missions continues to help this new 



missionaries. Since the inauguration of its 
work this splendid organization has gathered 
a grand total of $18,266,995.22 for the cause, 
and to-day reports more than five hundred 
missionaries in its employ. 

Facing the New Century 

With such a record of challenging growth 
and progress, what will the coming years 
bring forth? No one can answer definitely, 




A MODERN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN TIENTSIN, CHINA 



native church both with appropriations and 
missionaries. Of comparatively recent origin 
is the Methodist Episcopal Mission in Korea, 
for Dr. William B. Scranton, a medical mis- 
sionary, and H. S. Appenzeller landed in 
Chemulpo in 1885 and started preaching, 
teaching, and healing the people. Great suc- 
cess, especially in extraordinary revivals, has 
marked the work in Korea. Many of the na- 
tive Christians have also endured faithfully 
severe persecutions. 

The Women Awaken 

One day James M. Thoburn was making a 
trip in the Moradabad District in Northern 
India when he happened to pitch his tent un- 
der a mango tree in which a vulture had built 
her nest. A quill dropped from the wing of 
the bird and fluttered to the ground at the 
missionary's feet. Fashioning a pen out of 
the quill, it occurred to him to write his sis- 
ter in America a letter, telling of the condi- 
tion of women in India. This he did, and so 
graphic was the picture he drew, and so ap- 
pealingly did he put the case, that Isabella 
Thoburn offered herself as a missionary. As 
a result of the great need of Indian woman- 
hood thus portrayed, the appeal of two re- 
turned women missionaries and the eager re- 
sponse of Miss Thoburn, the Woman's For- 
eign Missionary Society was organized in 
1869 and began to send out special women 



but indications point to still greater achieve- 
ments in world-redemption. The General 
Conference of 1912 made provision whereby 
the Board of Sunday Schools was thereafter 
to receive ten per cent of the missionary of- 
ferings taken in the Sunday schools of the 
church to carry on its work with neglected 
childhood in mission regions. Already this 
board had for more than seventy years been 
assisting in the work of foreign missions, but 
with these new resources a forward move- 
ment was inaugurated, and, as a result, some 
twenty Sunday-school specialists are now at 
work in the foreign field and the Board is 
making free grants of literature to over thirty 
different foreign Conferences. At the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1916 a plan of cooperation 
was adopted not only involving the Board 
of Sunday Schools and the Board of Foreign 
Missions, but also the Board of Education 
and the Book Concern, looking toward the 
strengthening of our foreign work under a 
vast cooperative plan intended, as never be- 
fore, to put the whole church into the task of 
saving a world. 

A ringing challenge has already come from 
a large representative body of church leaders 
calling for earnest prayer, zealous study, and 
greatly multiplied contributions in celebra- 
tion of the Centenary of Methodist Missions. 
They urge that, as we enter the new century, 
destined as it is to mark an era of hitherto 



A CENTURY'S ACHIEVEMENTS 



11 



unparalleled reconstruction after the ravages 
of this tragic world-war, we also bear our 
share in transforming "the kingdoms of this 
world" into "the kingdoms of our Lord and 
his Christ." These facts, in conjunction with 
another, that in all the nations there are 



movements of unrest and awakening which 
create unprecedented opportunities, indicate 
that the new century will be characterized by 
still greater achievements than those of the 
first hundred years. No greater challenge has 
ever come to Methodism. 



Facts Worth Remembering 



1. Fields and Dates of Occupation 

Africa, 1833. Bulgaria, 1857. 

South America, 1836. Italy, 1872 



China, 1847. 
Germany, 1849. 
Sweden, 1853. 
Finland, 1S53. 
Norway, 1853. 
India, 1856. 
Switzerland, 1856. 
Denmark, 1857. 



Mexico, 1873. 
Japan, 1873. 
Burma, 1879. 
Malaysia, 1884. 
Korea, 1885. 
Philippine Isls., 1900. 
France, 1907. 
Russia, 1907. 



Austria-Hungary, 1908. 

2. Types of Work 

The work of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in foreign fields is not that of a 
superficial evangelism concerned simply that 
men may hear the gospel preached. Rather, 
the purpose of the church is a thorough 
Christianization not only of the individual, 
but also of the social order that the kingdom 
of God may really be established in all these 
lands. Consequently we are engaged in sev- 
eral different types of work. Medical mis- 
sionaries minister to the bodies of men. Hos- 
pitals and medical schools are established 
and other agencies maintained to promote 
healing and health. Annually more than 
200,000 treatments, including 2,000 major and 
6,000 minor operations, are given to the sick 
and suffering in these foreign missionary hos- 
pitals of the church. 

Another important phase of missionary en- 
deavor lies in various types of education. In 
this field we find colleges and universities, 
day and boarding schools, high schools and 
colleges exclusively for women, besides Bible, 
deaconess, theological, and normal schools, 
and institutions for industrial training. In 
this connection ought also to be mentioned 
the modern movement for religious education 
among the millions of non-Christian children. 
Institutional churches and a larger social 



ministry are also characterizing our foreign 
missionary propaganda. Nearly fifty orphan- 
ages at the present writing are maintained 
by the Board of Foreign Missions and the 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. How- 
ever, in addition to all these efforts, the di- 
rect evangelistic fervor and appeal are not 
wanting in any of our mission fields. Nota- 
bly in India and Korea revivals of unusual 
scope and intensity, with ever enlarging op- 
portunity in untouched communities, mark 
the progress of the work. 

3. A Survey of Income and Expenditures 

Under the old form of administration the 
church gave the Missionary Society, all told, 
for both home and foreign work, a total of 
$47,046,496.75. From 1907 to 1917 the in- 
come of the Board of Foreign Missions was 
$17,275,025.03. In addition the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society has collected and 
distributed $18,266,995.22 since 1870. Prop- 
erty to the value of $16,876,325 in churches, 
parsonages, hospitals, schools, and other 
buildings is owned by the church in foreign 
lands. In this connection it is exceedingly 
significant that the native churches on our 
mission fields contributed last year for self- 
support and other items the sum of $783,851. 

4. The Forces at Work 

There are now 1,559 missionaries of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church (including both 
missionaries and their wives), at work on the 
foreign field. These, assisted by 13,110 na- 
tive workers, care for a total membership of 
442,765, besides multitudes of adherents con- 
stituting a total of 673,657. Added to this 
there is a constituency of 7,440 Sunday 
schools with an enrollment of 346,793 schol- 
ars. The latter constitute the great hope of 
the future progress and permanency of the 
extension of the Kingdom of God. 



Fruitful Themes 



1. The story of the first Methodist foreign 
missionary. 

2. The beginnings of the Methodist Church 
in China, India, South America, Europe, 
Mexico, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and the 
Philippines. 



3. The types of missionary endeavor. 

4. The business side of foreign missions. 

5. The statistical growth of the enterprise 
by comparisons. 

6. The aims and plans of the Centenary 
Movement. 



12 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



LESSON II 



THE MISSIONARY AS HE IS 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach good tidings 
to the poor: he hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of 
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable 
year of the Lord." 



A Month on 

On our steamship, the Mongolia, crossing 
the great Pacific for Oriental ports, was one 
of the largest companies of missionaries 
ever transported at any one time to the Far 
East. There were one hundred and six per- 
sons in all, including men, women, and chil- 
dren. For twenty-eight days, on the trip from 
San Francisco to Manila, we lived in close 
neighborly relationship with these represen- 
tatives of the church of Christ, learned to 
know them intimately, and found that this 
contact presented an unusual opportunity for 
the study of the modern missionary and this 
work of Kingdom building beyond the seas. 

Specialists and Their Tasks 

Such a variety of missionaries devoted to 
such a diversity of tasks brought a very 
vivid impression of the vastness and com- 
plexity of world evangelization and of the 
exacting demands that are made upon those 
engaged in the enterprise. Among our fel- 
low passengers were lay workers, medical 
and evangelistic missionaries, Young Wom- 
en's Christian Association secretaries, edu- 
cational and Sunday-school specialists, Bible 
teachers, kindergarteners, nurses, instructors 
in domestic science, stenographers, and book- 
keepers. The majority of these were young 
people, quite a number of whom were going 
out to the foreign field for the first time. A 
few had grown gray in the service, and some 
were returning to their work after their first 
furlough of a year in the homeland. 

The traveler with preconceived prejudices 
as to foreign missionaries would have expe- 
rienced a series of surprises had he made 
this trip on the Mongolia. He would have 
found most of the men and women of this 
group with college educations and thorough 
training for their specific tasks. Perhaps, 
also, he would have been quite taken back to 
find them leading in the various athletic and 
social events that characterize the daily Jife 
on a modern ocean liner. The fact is that 
the missionary of to-day is highly efficient 
and very human, with a life abounding in a 
wide variety of interests. Daily meetings 
consisting of devotional exercises and an ad- 
dress on some particular phase of mission- 
ary work with lively discussions revealed ad- 
ditional facts regarding the character and 
work of these modern missionaries. No one 



the Pacific 

could attend one of these gatherings and 
question the deep spirituality of these mes- 
sengers of the cross. Indeed, it seemed that 
they surpassed the church workers at home 
in personal faith in the living God and his 
purpose for them. On one of the days a 
Presbyterian missionary related his "Korean 
Prison Experiences," stirring' the hearts of 
his hearers as he told of the loyalty of the 
native Christians in times of darkness and 
peril. Another speaker, on his way to China 
as an educational director, spoke at one of 
the meetings on his plans looking towards 
a new standard of educational efficiency in 
the missionary work of his denomination. 
He had just finished his course in the Co- 
lumbia University College for Teachers. A 
third meeting was devoted to the considera 
tion of the Sunday-school movement in for 
eign fields under the auspices of our own 
Board of Sunday Schools. Representatives 
of the board outlined the work of the modern 
Sunday school and conducted a question box. 
Still other meetings dealt with the various 
problems confronting the church abroad. 

Deck Chair Stories 

Deck chair conversations help also to break 
up the monotony of the long trip to the 
Orient, and prove to be sources of invaluable 
information and inspiration. A few weeks 
of such close association with the actual 
workers on the field is to be recommended to 
ignorant theorists and self-constituted critics 
of the missionary cause. A veteran of the 
Canadian Methodist Church talked with us 
for an hour about his close Chinese friend, 
Mr. Jay, West China's first martyr, describ- 
ing in most realistic fashion the terrible 
death, at the hands of the Boxers, of that 
Bible colporteur who refused to recant and 
died bravely for the sake of his Master. Said 
the pioneer, as he closed the story, "In the 
very town in which Jay was killed the spir- 
itual side of our work took on the impetus 
which has made our West China work nota- 
ble throughout the world." 

Another told the story of Chung On Taai, 
a convert who was offered by the Triad band 
of robbers a future which meant fabulous 
wealth to him if only he would consent to 
swear in the courts to their good character. 
They said: "Everybody knows you are a 



THE MISSIONARY AS HE IS 



13 



Christian, and that you will not lie; lie this 
once, and the money is yours." Chung, how- 
ever, remained true, for he was no "rice 
Christian." 

This story of relief work gives an insight 
into the practical side of missionary activity 
in ministering to suffering humanity. A 
young physician formerly in the employ of 
our own Board of Foreign Missions, now 
under appointment with the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, recounted this experi- 
ence one afternoon: During the famine of 
1911, he was appointed to take charge of rice 
distribution in the province of Anhui. With 



sylvania to the coast some weeks before sail- 
ing she spoke to a fellow passenger, an aus- 
tere business man, regarding the Christian 
life, and to her great surprise discovered that 
here was an American who was not a Chris- 
tian. She said, "Oh, then you are a heath- 
en!" That word shocked the man into 
serious thoughts as to the meaning and pur- 
pose of his life, and has since led to his con- 
version. With his entire family, just before 
our boat sailed, he united with the church. 
The little Korean continued her work of per- 
sonal evangelism throughout the trip, speak- 
ing to the barber, the steward, and various 




READY FOR A MISSIONARY TRIP IN THE KOREAN COUNTRYSIDE 



his native helpers he worked from 6 o'clock 
in the morning until 10 o'clock at night daily 
for weeks, bringing relief to more than 300,- 
000 persons and distributing more than 48,- 
000 bushels of grain. The Chinese officials 
in the spirit of heathenism said to the young 
doctor as he began this work of relief : "Let 
them die, there are plenty of them." In strik- 
ing contrast this sentence, spoken with the 
pity of Christ, stood out in the doctor's story : 
"I saw hundreds of persons in those hungry 
crowds who needed surgical operations and 
needed them at once." 

Voyagers on the Mongolia will not soon 
forget Qui II Kahng, the Korean girl, return- 
ing home after a year in America. She had 
crossed the sea to be married to one of her 
own countrymen, who had preceded her to 
the United States. Arriving in San Fran- 
cisco, she discovered to her great disappoint- 
ment that her lover was not a Christian. 
With remarkable fidelity to her faith she 
gave him up and with him all plans for a 
home of her own, and finally found a place 
in the home of a missionary where she could 
earn her own living. Returning from Penn- 



traveling companions of the faith so dear to 
her heart. 

In a quiet corner of the deck there sat day 
after day a plain little woman. Not many 
of the throng of passengers noticed her, but 
judged by the highest standards, her life has 
been pre-eminently successful. Twenty-one 
years ago, with her husband, she gave her 
life to China. During that period these two 
have organized the work of an entire dis- 
trict. To-day they have eight churches with 
a boys' and girls' school in connection with 
each and a great central hospital ministering 
to between 150 and 200 suffering ones daily. 
But in spite of all this exacting work with 
its manifold difficulties, she has not failed in 
the high business of home-making. Seven 
children have come to bless the lives of these 
two, and every one has decided to give his 
life to some form of missionary service. Al- 
ready the three older children have "volun- 
teered," one as a preacher, one as a physi- 
cian, and one as a teacher. No wonder un- 
der the look of serious concern which years 
of contact with sin and suffering have 
brought to her face, there shines out a stead- 



14 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



fast cheerfulness and peace, the result of a 
task faithfully done for the Kingdom of God. 
Living with these missionaries on a jour- 
ney more than seven thousand miles long 
served to strengthen one's faith in the great 
cause for which Christ died. Yet it also 
brought out very clearly how complex and 
exacting a task it is to redeem a world. 



We finally arrived one foggy morning in 
sight of land and soon discerned strange 
sights along the shore line of old Japan. We 
had reached the Orient and now our mission- 
ary friends began to scatter, each going to 
his appointed place and work, even as did the 
disciples of Jesus nineteen hundred years 
ago. 



The Personal Equation 

The Gall of the Missionary 

There is a general obligation resting upon 
every one of us in regard to foreign missions. 
The direct commands and prayers of Christ 
enforce the duty we owe to others who do 
not have our privileges and opportunities, 
and his life and death give these utterances 
added weight. Other arguments might be 




A MISSIONAEY FAMILY IN MALAYSIA 

advanced pointing in the same direction. All 
things considered, it is doubtful whether one 
can be classed as a Christian who has not the 
missionary spirit. This does not mean, how- 
ever, that every Christian is called upon to 
go in person to a far-away mission field. 
What then constitutes a specific call to this 
type of service? There is need for great care 
in the consideration of the matter. Some- 
times under stress of emotion after a stir- 
ring missionary address or through a desire 
to see strange lands and peoples, a quick 
decision is made in favor of a life-work in 
foreign fields. Again, a false estimate of 
the value of service in these fields as 
against that in the home land or a failure 
to count the cost and judge the difficulties 
and disappointments that must be encount- 
ered in non-Christian regions, has caused 
many a candidate to make a well-nigh irre- 
parable mistake in his life-work. 

But there is again and again a definite 
sense of personal obligation amounting to an 



individual call to this type of service, espe- 
cially in view of the dearth of workers and 
the appalling needs of the peoples beyond 
the seas. The important thing is that the 
duty shall become very clear after the whole 
matter has been carefully guided by earnest 
prayer, careful thought, and the judgment 
of wise friends. A thorough study of one's 
personal qualifications for this work and for 
the demands of missionary life, including the 
difficulties to be met on the field and the ob- 
ligations of a personal nature resting on the 
candidate should also be made before the 
final decision is reached. Finally the chances 
of specific preparation for the task and an 
actual opportunity to undertake it would be 
strong elements favoring an affirmative de- 
cision. 

The Qualifications of the Missionary 

The primary qualification for foreign mis- 
sionary work has to do with the moral and 
spiritual quality of the candidate. He will 
need to know the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ through personal experience. 
His character must be beyond reproach. 

Very important are the physical qualifica- 
tions, for much of our missionary work is in 
tropical lands where the climate is most de- 
pressing. Travel also is hard in many of 
these fields and fatal diseases abound. The 
health, therefore, of the prospective mission- 
ary should be sound. He ought also to have 
a clear, vigorous intellect, for as foreign mis- 
sionary work develops there is an increasing 
demand for the most thoughtful leaders in 
all the different departments of the work. 
He should have facility moreover in the mas- 
tery of languages. We are told, for exam- 
ple, that the every-day working language of 
China involves some eight thousand charac- 
ters. Moreover, every missionary is con- 
stantly called upon to help in the raising of 
money, frequently on the field, almost in- 
variably when on his furlough. Hence it is 
very desirable that the candidate should be 
able to handle financial matters. In general, 
too, the temperament of the person and his 
ability to co-operate with others will be de- 
termining factors in his missionary success. 
Likewise the judgment of boards and socie- 
ties having in charge work in the foreign field 
is greatly influenced in the selection of rep- 



THE MISSIONARY AS HE IS 



15 



resentatives by the consideration of the 
probability of the continual growth and de- 
velopment of the missionary while in the 
service. This is most important in view of 
the rapid progress now being made in most 
fields, notably in Japan, and also because of 
the tendency on the part of a missionary to 
"let down" under the influence of a depress- 
ing environment. Every candidate in these 
modern times is required to meet with a spe- 
cial committee and to pass a satisfactory 
medical examination before he is accepted 
for work in the foreign field. Such precau- 
tions are as essential for the person himself 
as for the church under which he plans to 
operate. 

The Training of the Missionary 

Granted that the prospective missionary 
possesses measurably the proper natural 
qualifications for his work, the next question 
has to do with his preparation. Every can- 
didate ought to have, if at all possible, a 
good college education. In addition in these 
days of specialization he ought to take a 
course in medicine if he is to become a phy- 
sician ; a post-graduate course in some teach- 
ers' college, if his work is to be educational, 
and industrial training, if this should be his 
chosen vocation. A number of institutions 
in our own church offer general training for 
the foreign field. Courses on missions and 
on comparative religions are advertised by 
a number of- our colleges, while the theolog- 
ical schools of the church have developed de- 
partments dealing with these and kindred 
subjects. Among these are Boston Univer- 
sity School of Theology, Boston, Massachu- 
setts; Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, 
New Jersey; Garrett Biblical Institute, Ev- 
anston, Illinois ; and Iliff School of Theol- 
ogy, Denver, Colorado. In addition, the Chi- 
cago Training School, Chicago, Illinois; the 
Cincinnati Missionary Training School, Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio; and the Folts Mission Insti- 
tute at Herkimer, New York, offer similar 
opportunities, especially for young women. 

The Missionary on the Field 

Numerous considerations having to do 
with the field itself have a bearing on the 
success or failure of a missionary. Great 
care ought to be exercised in the choice of 
the place where one is intending to carry on 



his life work. Some climates are very de- 
pressing and trying on the nerves, others are 
damp and malarial. In most parts of Africa 
there is danger from exposure to the fever. 
Other fields are free from these conditions, 
but have their own peculiarities. Some peo- 
ples are mystical in their religious outlook, 
others, like the Chinese, are intensely prac- 
tical. The matter of selection of field should 
extend even farther — to the particular phase 
of missionary work in which the candidate is 
to engage. Some fields are especially open 
to the preaching ministry, others to that of 
teaching, while still others to medical or in- 
dustrial work. Of course, in general every 
field of any size will call for all these and 
even other types of service. 

Sometimes one hears criticism from super- 
ficial tourists as to the missionary's manner 
of life. These persons say in substance that 
the representative of the church should live 
in the same style as the natives among whom 
he labors. Missionaries are provided with 
good, but not extravagant homes. Aside 
from their absolute need of living in the way 
to which they have been accustomed at home, 
the very progress of their work depends upon 
such a demonstration of family and home 
life as shall lift by example the standard of 
the civilization around them. The foreign 
field differs from the home field in the mat- 
ter of salaries, in that all missionaries in a 
given field receive practically the same mod- 
erate compensation with provision for hous- 
ing and an arrangement for slight increases 
for each child in the family and an extra al- 
lowance to assist in the child's higher edu- 
cation when he reaches college age. Fur- 
loughs are granted missionaries every five 
or seven years depending on the field and 
the particular situation in the mission when 
the furlough is due. It is important that mis- 
sionaries should have these regular furloughs 
of a year both on account of their own health 
and in the case of married persons, that of 
their family, and also in order that they may 
have a chance to get in touch once more with 
the progressive movements at home. Such 
a period also affords an opportunity for 
study and a general refreshing that shall 
bring new strength with which to face the 
problems of the field. The plan also aids in 
getting news directly from the field to the 
church, but missionaries on furlough ought 
not to overwork during their periods of rest. 



Six Leading Questions 



1. What constitutes a "call" to the mis- 
sion field? 

2. Name six important qualifications in a 
foreign missionary. 

3. Discuss the tendency towards special- 
ization in the mission field. 



4. What can you say as to the necessity 
of thorough preparation for this task? 

5. Point out three or four essentials in the 
missionary's relation to his field. 

6. How can every Christian be related to 
foreign missionary work? 



16 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



LESSON III 

FACING THE TASK 

"The harvest indeed is plenteous, out the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore 
the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth laborers into his harvest" 



A Trip Up the Min River 

One March evening we made our way with 
a half dozen Chinese coolies down the dark, 
narrow streets of Foochow to the banks of 
the Min River, where our little rat-boat was 
waiting to start on a trip toward the interior. 




A MISSIONARY SEEKING TO CONVERT A HINDU 
PRIEST 

The boat was a small affair slightly larger 
than an American row boat, but with a bam- 
boo canopy. It was the boatman's only home. 
Here, with his little family, he was worrying 
through his poor, confined existence. Mil- 
lions of people in China are boatmen and 
spend their lifetimes literally from birth to 
death on the water. In Hongkong and Can- 
ton alone there are two hundred thousand of 
them. Nor are the women exempted in this 
occupation. In multitudes of instances we 
saw women with little babes strapped to 
their backs laboriously pulling the heavy 
oars of overladen boats. 

Traveling Under Difficulties 

After considerable loud wrangling and de- 
lay the party, consisting of seven, with great 
hampers of food, cooking utensils, and cloth- 
ing, were finally crowded into the cramped 
quarters of the boat and we began slowly to 
fight our way up the treacherous waters of 
the Min. The trip was not a long one from 
the standpoint of distance, for we covered a 
little more than a hundred miles, but from the 
Standpoint of time, of which the average 



Oriental takes no note, we could have just 
about crossed the American continent from 
New York to San Francisco in the long days 
and nights consumed in traversing the dis- 
tance between Foochow and our destination, 
the city of Yenping. There were none of the 
accommodations to which we are accustomed 
in the United States in connection with our 
trip. When mealtimes came the Chinese cook 
simply dipped up a vessel of the river water 
and began to boil rice over a diminutive 
charcoal fire which he kept fanning persis- 
tently, thus furnishing the needed draught. 
The natives know nothing of bacteria, but 
they have learned from bitter experience that 
cold water is dangerous. Hot rice, with a 
few other edibles, including some canned 
goods from a Chicago mail-order house, com- 
pleted the menu. During the entire trip 
there was no opportunity to change one's 
clothes, to say nothing of taking a bath or 
getting a shave. At night the itinerant slept 
on the hard bottom of the boat, so closely 
sandwiched in between two Orientals, the 
cook and the young interpreter, that when 
any one of the three desired to turn over he 
was obliged to give a signal, that all might 
change positions at the same time. 

Fears and Superstitions 

One morning, when we had disembarked 
for a short while to relax our cramped bodies 
after a rather sleepless night, we returned to 
the rat-boat to find the old boatman busy 
with his devotions. There, under the canopy, 
was the little image of his god, and before it 
he had lifted two joss sticks as a kind of 
prayer and sacrifice, that no evil might befall 
his craft, for in places this river is so treach- 
erous that many boats strike the rocks and 
are beaten to pieces. Frequently also the 
boatmen and passengers lose their lives in 
the terrible current. Several religions pre- 
vail in China, notably Confucianism, Taoism, 
and Mohammedanism. This man was a Tao- 
ist, a kind of nature worshiper. Taoism has 
a countless number of gods and literally thou- 
sands of priests and magicians. The faith is 
permeated with fear and superstitions, and 
its followers are called upon constantly to 
make sacrifices and contributions to the 
priests in order to keep their lives free from 
the perils and disasters of every-day exist- 
ence. 

At one of the villages where we stopped 



FACING THE TASK 



17 



that same day we found a Buddhist temple 
with a great image of Buddha in meditation. 
Before the figure a woman was bowing, and 
back of her was a priest instructing her in 
the worship. Every town of any importance 
along this river had its wide-open temple to 
the "Blessed One" and its worshipers. Here 
in Fukien Province, through the very heart 
of which we were making our way, there is 
a population of approximately twenty-three 
millions scattered over 46,320 square miles. 
The State of Pennsylvania, of about the same 
area, has about one third as many people. 
Fukien is only one of the densely populated 
twenty-one provinces of China with a total 
estimated population of 331,188,000. In the 
face of such figures and with a race trained 
in superstitions, such as are illustrated by 
these incidents, something of the size of the 
missionary undertaking becomes apparent. 

A Crowd Hungry for Knowledge 

On the second day of our trip we reached 
a village of considerable size and decided to 
beach the boat for the night. We therefore 
climbed up the steep bank to see the sights — 
and to smell the smells, for along the main 
street of the town were several open vats of 
unspeakably foul-smelling fertilizer. Down 
the dark, narrow, filthy streets the yelling, 
brawling Chinese mob of men, women, and 
children came to see the "foreign devil," as 
they call an American or European. They 
gathered around, and we began to talk about 
topics of interest through the interpreter. 
They were deeply interested in a watch and 
especially in a fountain pen that was shown 
to them. "Write," said a venerable old man, 
"write, 'Save a cash and have a million.' " 
When this was done, to the great amazement 
of the crowd over the English characters, the 
old gentleman sent for brush and ink pot and 
wrote the same sentiment in Chinese. We 
were then well acquainted and the conversa- 
tion turned to the great war. "We hear," 
said the old grandfather again, "that there 
is a great war in the world and that men are 
flying like birds." "Yes, indeed, and worse, 
than that," we replied, "they are traveling 
in boats under the sea and blowing up other 
vessels." "Oh, ah, oh!" gasped the crowd in 
dumb amazement. Presently we talked of 
education and religion, and the old man af- 
firmed that education was most important, 
and declared, with much pride, that they had 
a school in the village with a total of twenty- 
two children getting an education! 

After several hours of such sightseeing 
and conversation we again returned to our 
boat for the night, but just as we were about 
to extinguish the lantern the boatman said, 
"Well, here is where all the great robberies 
occur; but don't bother me to-night, I'm all 



tired out and must get some sleep." For- 
tunately we were not robbed, though the 
American consul at Foochow had warned us 
against this trip, as bands of robbers beyond 
all control of the half-organized Chinese 
government infest the hills and mountains of 
the Min and frequently swoop down in a 
wholesale raid of murder and robbery, at 
times even sacking entire villages. 

The Hard Struggle for Life 

As we proceeded on our trip we had an 
excellent opportunity for studying the rice 
fields along the banks of the river. So skill- 
ful are the Chinese farmers with their little 
farms that they have worked out a splendid 
system of irrigation and are able to produce 
not one, but two or three crops in a season. 
They make every square foot of the ground 
yield its utmost, but are just as careful to 
renew the soil by adequate fertilization. The 
really scientific farmers of the world are in 
China, for the congestion of population and 
the general poverty of the people force the 
raising of the largest possible crops with the 
highest possible food values. Another illus- 
tration of the stern struggle for existence in 
this land was also to be seen from our little 
boat. Long lines of from fifty to sixty men 
on the banks of the river were laboriously 
straining at a heavy cable attached to a sc- 




an OLD HINDU WOMAN AND HER IDOL 

ri'es of overloaded rafts. In our own country 
this work would have been performed by 
horse power or machinery. But in China 
men thus take the place of animals every- 
where. 

Even more pathetic, however, than this 
scene was another incident that occurred late 
one afternoon. Some yards from our boat 
two rat-boats had pulled close together and 



18 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



we heard loud voices in earnest conversation. 
Our interpreter informed us that a bargain 
was being made. A man in one of the boats 
was offering to sell a little girl to the occu- 
pants of the other. We asked the interpreter 
to inquire into the details, and he reported 
that the little girl's mother was very ill and 
the family had exhausted all its resources 
with the native physicians, and now, as a 
last resort, this child was being sold to se- 
cure means to purchase more medicine. 

"The City of Lingering Peace" 

Finally, after these and other varied expe- 
riences, we arrived one afternoon about four 
o'clock at Yenping, "the City of Lingering 
Peace," as the name is translated. Here 
years ago, when the foundations of Methodist 
missionary work were being laid in the Foo- 
chow Conference, Nathan Sites, that faithful 
pioneer of the church, made this same trip up 
the Min River, landing probably at this same 



place. He passed through the great gate of 
the walled city, as we did. to preach the gos- 
pel of the Son of God to its idolatrous inhab- 
itants. The enterprise nearly cost him his 
life, for the Chinese dragged him from the 
house in which he was speaking, beating and 
stoning him into insensibility. That he es- 
caped a martyr's death was nothing less than 
a miracle. There was one faithful native 
Christian with him, however, who rescued his 
friend and teacher and stealthily slipped 
away with him to the boat, and thence back 
to Foochow. But the seeds were planted dur- 
ing this and other later visits, so that to-day 
the Methodist Church has a boys' school, a 
girls' school, a women's training school, a 
hospital, and a large church within the walls 
of old Yenping. Moreover, the city is the cen- 
ter of the new Conference just organized. 
Thus, in spite of difficult conditions and in- 
numerable obstacles, the gospel of the King- 
dom is making its way in this ancient land. 



Social Conditions 

The severity of the struggle for physical 
existence in most of these foreign fields is be- 
yond the comprehension of the average Amer- 
ican, unless he has visited in other parts of 
the world than his own country. In India, for 
example, the average laborer's wage is piti- 
fully low, frequently reaching a minimum of 
four cents a day, or even less. In other re- 
gions wages are also meager and the work so 
heavy that it constantly lowers the physical 
vitality and resistance of the worker. Child 
labor abounds everywhere. "We found no 
laws against it in any Oriental country and 
saw children as young as four years toiling 
at arduous tasks. Likewise, woman is looked 
upon in these lands as a mere animal without 
much intelligence. Therefore she receives 
but slight consideration and is forced into 
employments that overtax her strength. 
Other evils, such as foot binding in China and 
child marriage in India, still nourish. Con- 
cubinage is common and the traffic in women 
is carried on in some of these countries in 
wholesale fashion as a legitimate business. 
As is to be expected as a result of these evil 
conditions and the general unsanitary and 
actually filthy surroundings, especially in 
China, awful diseases run rampant. There 
are cholera, plague, fevers, smallpox, leprosy, 
and a host of others. Venereal diseases 
abound and undermine the health of the peo- 
ple in a most frightful way. 

Language and Travel 

The missionary meets two great obstacles 
to his work as soon as he lands in his chosen 
field. These are language and travel. If he 
is to succeed he must first of all master the 



The Complexities of the Field 

medium of communication or he will get no- 
where. Eighty-one different languages and 
dialects are used in the various foreign Con- 
ferences of our church. In some cases a large 
number prevail in one field, as, for example, 
in India. In one instance, when preaching to 
a native congregation, we had to have two 
interpreters in order to reach all of our hear- 
ers. The English paragraph was each time 
translated into Spanish by the first inter- 
preter, and from the Spanish into the native 
dialect by the second one. In that small 
crowd of some seventy-five or a hundred peo- 
ple three languages were represented. Lack 
of facilities for travel in the mission field pre- 
sents still another obstacle to the progress of 
the Kingdom. Except in India and Japan, of 
the Oriental countries, railroads are few and 
the trains are generally slow. In our tour of 
the mission fields of the church we traveled 
in twenty-four different ways, including such 
unique means as jinrikisha, chair, oxcart, ele- 
phant, camel, carromata (two- wheeled car- 
riage), and houseboat. 



Non-Christian Religions 

Christianity with its 564,510.000 followers 
meets numerous non-Christian religions in 
the missionary propaganda. Some idea of 
their variety and numerical strength w T ill ap- 
pear from the following list: Confucianism 
and Taoism, 300.830,000 (mostly in China) : 
Hinduism, 210,540,000 (mostly in India) ; 
Mohammedanism, 221,825,000 (Arabia, India. 
China, Japan, Korea, Philippines. Malaysia. 
Africa, and elsewhere) ; Buddhism. 138.031.- 
000 (Ceylon, Burma, Malaysia, China, Japan. 
Korea) ; Animists, or Spirit Worshipers. 
158,270,000 (Africa and Korea, especially, and 



FACING THE TASK 



19 



to some extent in nearly all fields). Besides 
these and some other minor sects of non- 
Christians, Protestant Christianity comes in 
contact also with forms of Roman Catholi- 
cism that foster the ignorance, superstition, 
and fanaticism of the native peoples, notably 
in Italy, Mexico, and South America. These 
non-Christian faiths combine some good with 
very many bad elements. In general they 
represent the expression of a universal re- 
ligious instinct and sometimes very worthy 



church for Kingdom efficiency. To begin 
with, there is the practical problem of financ- 
ing the work on the necessarily meager 
budget available. It would be a wholesome 
revelation to Christians in the homeland to 
sit with a finance committee of a mission, as 
we did in a number of instances. The op- 
portunities of numerous unoccupied areas, 
the need of more helpers, the demand for 
more and better buildings, for new equipment 
in hospitals and educational institutions, old 




A BOY PRAYING IN A BUDDHIST TEMPLE IN BURMA 



ethical ideals are also embodied in the mass 
of superstitions and degrading teachings. 
Idolatry, priestcraft, sensual practices, fear, 
superstition, intolerance, and cruelty, how- 
ever, are some of the sinister expressions and 
fruits of these strange beliefs. Upon the 
whole it may be said that, when tested by 
their results in life, they are sadly wanting, 
for they make but small contribution toward 
the progress of the individual or collective life 
of the race. 

Still there is a difficult problem involved in 
the presence of these peculiar doctrines, rites, 
ceremonies, and practices that must be met 
by the preacher and teacher of Christ's gos- 
pel. Wholesale denunciation, criticism, or 
even argument with natives in these matters 
seldom results in progress for the cause of 
the Kingdom. Rather the discussion without 
compromise of the point of contact between 
non-Christian faiths and our own is generally 
helpful. Then the proclamation of positive, 
helpful Christian truths in the spirit of love, 
and an unselfish ministry to the manifold 
needs of the people, generally win. 

Perplexities in Church Administration 

Quite a number of problems arise for the 
missionary in the task of establishing the 



debts, furloughs, broken down missionaries, 
failure of the expected increases in collec- 
tions at home — these and countless other tax- 
ing issues constantly harass the missionaries. 
In addition there are the questions relating to 
church administration in lands just opening 
to the gospel. Many of our native members 
are in the very midst of complex social con- 
ditions from which it is almost impossible 
for them to extricate themselves. Polygamy, 
child marriage, caste, and other evils press 
upon them from every side. Sometimes even 
they themselves are deeply involved in some 
of these before their conversion and scarcely 
know what course is really Christian in the 
concrete case. Here the greatest wisdom is 
needed on the part of the missionary. 

Then, too, most of these new Christians are 
far from ideal in their understanding and 
practice of the Christian faith. This in turn 
calls for inexhaustible patience and tact. 
Matters of discipline and the control and 
guidance of native workers also tax his in- 
sight and executive ability. Moreover, the 
bad example of many English-speaking tour- 
ists and residents who are looked upon as 
representatives of Christianity causes con- 
stant embarrassment and occasionally frus- 
trates the best efforts of the missionary. Be- 



20 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



sides all this there are the larger considera- 
tions of cooperation with the forces at home 
and with other missions at work in the same 
field. In view of all these difficulties and 



problems presented by the foreign mission 
field one is led to wonder at the rapidity with 
which the Kingdom is progressing through- 
out the world. 



Various Angles of the Task 

1. Missionary endeavor, a ministry to all 
sides of individual and collective life. 

2. The difficulties involved in language, 
travel, and customs. 

3. The attitude of the missionary toward 
non-Christian faiths. 



4. Administering the church in the foreign 
field. 

5. The dearth of workers and the financial 
support so essential to large missionary suc- 
cess. 

6. Arousing the church at home. 



LESSON IV 

THE EVANGELISTIC MOVEMENT 

"Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe 
all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto 
the end of the world" 

A Mass Movement Excursion 



What is the "Mass Movement"? It is a 
modern revival now going on in India, in 
which multitudes are being baptized by our 
missionaries and countless other multitudes 
are anxiously waiting to make an open con- 
fession of Christ. Whole villages of hun- 
dreds of people are thus coming into the 
church, in a land of literally millions of vil- 
lages. This great awakening is characteriz- 
ing both North and South India, but it is of 
peculiar significance that some of its greatest 
manifestations follow the course of the sa- 
cred Ganges through the very heart of an- 
cient Hinduism. Of a revival of such com- 
prehensive proportions no one can forecast 
the full meaning and final outcome. Rather 
it should be our task to turn all our energies 
to the consideration of the stupendous oppor- 
tunities and responsibilities of the present 
hour in India, for the situation teems with 
possibilities for desperate defeat or glorious 
victory. The people of the mass movement 
must be organized and carefully trained or 
we shall have on hand a region "burned over" 
with an ephemeral fire. Yet carefully con- 
served and educated, these now sadly imma- 
ture Christians will build the Kingdom in 
India for time and eternity. 

A Service of Testimony 

Let us make an excursion into the very 
midst of the mass movement and see with our 
own eyes the waiting multitudes in their pov- 
erty, ignorance, and overwhelming soul hun- 
ger. We arrived in Ghaziabad one evening 
just as the sun was sinking. The railroad 
station was crowded with turbaned figures 
moving hither and thither in great confusion, 



while the air was filled with their strange, 
discordant cries. In the background stood a 
plain little woman in a dark-blue tailor-made 
garment, on whose face we read the story of 
years of patient toil, out of which had grown 
a confident faith and hope. Behold, then, the 
missionary, a fit symbol of the new trans- 
forming influence coming into the life of 
strange, wretched, groping India. Our host- 
ess quickly introduced herself, and soon we 
were making our way, bag and baggage, to 
the missionary headquarters of this region. 
After an appetizing supper it was announced 
that we were to attend a special testimony 
service near by. Arriving at the place of 
meeting, we found a great throng gathered 
in the open between two high walls. It was 
our first contact with the mass movement, 
and we were curious to see and hear these 
new Christians. 

The scene had its weird aspects that night, 
for as these natives sat huddled together on 
the ground, their white garments wrapped 
about their heads and shoulders to keep out 
the cold, and the flickering lights of the 
torches creating fantastic dancing shadows 
on the wall in the background, the gathering 
reminded one of the secret meetings of the 
early Christians in the catacombs of Rome. 
Nor was the service unlike those in several 
other respects. The singing revealed a strong 
depth of emotion, and the prayers had that 
vital ring always associated with fresh re- 
ligious experience. Soon these converted 
Hindus began to tell what the Lord had done 
for their souls, as did those early followers 
of the Christ. Then they asked for a message 
from the church in America and, while it was 



THE EVANGELISTIC MOVEMENT 



21 



spoken, showed by the expression on their 
faces and the nodding of their heads that 
they understood at least the fundamentals of 
the faith. What a sight it was that night! 
How typical of India's pathetic groping for 
the light and earnest devotion to the gleam ! 

The Mass Movement in Action 

But we were to see more of this wondrous 
revival, for some days later we started early 
in the morning on an excursion right into the 
Jheart of the mass-movement territory of 
northern India. With our 
party were the district su- 
perintendent, several repre- 
sentatives of the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society, 
together with old Gordon, 
the leading native preacher 
of the district, and his as- 
sistants. The procession 
started from headquarters 
for the villages soon after 
breakfast, a great Indian ox- 
cart in the lead, several bi- 
cycles following the ox-cart, 
and trailing along behind 
was a group of pedestrians. 
No wonder the men and 
women, as well as the chil- 
dren on the streets of sleepy 
old Ghaziabad, turned to 
view with curiosity the 
strangely mixed group of 
Americans and Indians. 
Presently the party arrived 
at a little hill some distance 
from the city. Here we halted and the dis- 
trict superintendent pointed out from its 
summit fourteen different villages on the 
horizon, in every one of which Methodism 
has converts, but in no one of which a single 
Christian worker to lead and care for them. 
After several miles more of travel over the 
hot, dusty sands we see at last the outline of 
the village that we had planned to visit. 
Drawing near, there is a sense of familiarity 
about the surroundings inexplicable until we 
discover that before us is a veritable repro- 
duction of a Bible scene. The people are 
crowding out of the village gates down the 
winding path to meet us. Yonder is the well 
in the midst of the little thatched mud 
houses, while in the distance a solitary 
woman walks with a water jar balanced on 
her head. It is Farrukhnagar, a village of 
the chamar caste, and all its people are work- 
ers in leather. They have thrown aside the 
shoes upon which they have been laboring 
and hasten to bring us into the village to an 
open space between the houses. Then the 
meeting begins with the singing of that mass- 
movement hymn which no one can ever forget 




A SWEEPER 



who has once heard the exultant hope burst 
through its sad minor strains: 

"Raja Yisu aya 
Raja Yisu aya 
Shaitan ko jitne ke liye 
Raja Yisu aya." 

It is their song of deliverance. "Jesus the 
King has come!" There are several prayers, 
and then the tall native preacher, standing 
under yonder tree, begins to tell the simple 
story, with all its Oriental imagery, to the 
crowd circled at his feet. 
With faces uplifted, not a 
word escapes their eager 
ears. 

The sermon over, the dis- 
trict superintendent begins 
to question the chaudrie, or 
headman of the village, as 
to the understanding of the 
people in Christian essen- 
tials. Finally the examina- 
tion comes to a close and the 
chaudrie requests baptism 
for the entire community, 
which for months has had 
more or less regular visita- 
tions from missionaries or 
native workers. The bap- 
tism differs from the cere- 
mony as it is performed at 
home in that, first of all, the 
officiating minister cuts 
from the head of each candi- 
date the little lock of hair 
called a "chutiya." This is 
the sacred sign of his Hinduism. When a 
man is willing to part with this hair it is a 
sure indication of the sincerity of his motive. 
After all the chutiyas had been cut that day, 
several of us took up the task of baptizing 
these converts until the rite had been admin- 
istered to the entire group. 

A most significant incident occurred at the 
close of the meeting. One of the men came 
forward and, laying a cloth on the ground, 
poured out a small quantity of grain from a 
little bag. It was his contribution to the 
work of the Kingdom, and the act took on 
unusual meaning when we were told that the 
man's wages amounted to only four cents a 
day and that he had a family dependent upon 
him for support. His little offering of grain 
was worth about two cents and represented 
the savings of nearly two months. Such an 
act was a reminder of that of the widow 
whom Jesus commended. 

An Estimate of the Great Revival 

Thus in our one-day excursion we had 
caught a glimpse of India's great revival and 
had seen some of these new Christians face 



22 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



to face. How shall we analyze the move- 
ment? What of its character and the per- 
manency of its results? To begin with, we 
should understand that it follows caste lines 
and embraces just now especially sweepers 
and leather workers. These castes represent 
a little higher social plane than those with 
whom our work originally began, and there- 
fore missionary leaders think we mav con- 




THE OFFERING OF A MONTH S SAVINGS TO 
"RAJAH yisu" 

tinue to push upward in the scale with the 
Christian appeal until at last the Brahmans 
themselves as a class are reached. At pres- 
ent the people of the mass movement are des- 
perately poor and illiterate. Doubtless many 
in their thinking idealize the influence of 
Christianity, hoping for speedy relief from 
social ills by allying themselves with the new 
faith. And yet we met those whose religious 
outlook was clear and intelligent, who com- 
prehend that their deliverance must come in 
a vital rather than in a mechanical way. 
Many such are practicing strict self-denial 
like that of the man who contributed the 



grain, and are enduring hard persecutions 
and social ostracism for the sake of the faith. 
The situation is one of appalling opportu- 
nity. Christian education alone can take this 
promising movement and give it an enduring 
character. There is an immediate demand 
for efficient Sunday schools for the children, 
for it is true, as one missionary has said, 
"The largest meaning of the mass movement 
is the coming generation." There must be 
more day and boarding schools. Colleges for 
the training of the more intelligent young 
men and women and theological and Bible- 
training institutions should be located in the 
important centers. The church simply must 
not allow the inspiration of this revival with 
the thousands turning to God to blind her 
eyes to the immediate necessity of organizing 
and draining these converts for the long, hard 
task of building the Kingdom. 

Startling Figures 

The proportions of undertaking properly to 
care for the mass-movement territory will ap- 
pear from a review of the latest statistics in 
the matter. There are now more than 30,000 
baptisms annually in these regions among the 
50,000,000 people directly available to the 
Christian appeal. Our share, as a church, of 
this vast multitude is not less than 6,000,000, 
for whom we are directly responsible. We 
refused 150,000 people baptism in India last 
year for lack of proper supervision. In order 
at all adequately to meet the present situa- 
tion, then, our leaders are calling for Sunday 
school and primary education for the 60,000 
neglected boys and girls of our new converts 
and the hundreds of thousands of children as 
yet untouched by Christian influence. The 
force of American missionaries for India 
should be doubled and 1,050 pastors added to 
our working staff, besides 1,300 teachers to 
meet the educational demands of the villages. 
In view of these insistent needs created by 
India's great revival a "Mass Movement Com- 
mission" has been created to guide and care 
for this remarkable movement. 



Discipling 

Christianity to-day claims twice the num- 
ber of followers of any other single world- 
religion and considerably more than half the 
globe is under the control of Christian gov- 
ernments, while eighty-five per cent of the in- 
habitable land is actually occupied by Chris- 
tians. Thus the work of discipling the nation 
is well under way, and yet hundreds of mil- 
lions of the human family still remain to be 
brought into vital relation with Jesus Christ. 

Evangelization or Christianization 

We are in some danger of making a super- 
ficial estimate of the meaning of such a task. 



the Nations 

Does our responsibility cease when every na- 
tion at last has heard the Word preached? 
Or can we rest content even with the exposi- 
tion of the gospel again and again to any one 
community? Surely there is a more compre- 
hensive program necessary if the kingdom of 
God is to be established on the earth. The 
Word must not only be preached : we must 
see to it that gospel truth is realized in life 
and that practical expression is given to our 
high ideals in character and actual service. 
Not evangelization, then, in any narrow, con- 
fined sense, but Christianization in all its 
largeness of meaning should be our objective 



THE EVANGELISTIC MOVEMENT 



23 



in all missionary endeavor. The very pecul- 
iarities and needs of foreign fields help us to 
this broader view. Hence we find the work 
of evangelism wrapped up in numerous other 
activities, such as medical, educational, in- 
dustrial, and social plans of helpfulness. 
With full appreciation of the mauysided char- 
acter of this work of Christianization, we 
must not discount the value of preaching and 
teaching gospel truths, nor the necessity of 
seeking the voluntary allegiance of the indi- 
vidual will to Christ and the cooperation of 
Christians in church organization. 

Ways of Approach 

In every field, therefore, we are training 
evangelistic workers, Bible teachers, and 
preachers to carry the message of the King- 
dom and to organize the converts into socie- 



tions have made continual additions to the 
number of the followers of Christ. Finally 
the influence of the mere presence and self- 
sacrificing service of the missionaries must 
also be counted as a large evangelistic factor. 

The World Wide Church 

Thus men and women in all these lands are 
hearing the good news by word of mouth and 
seeing the meaning of Christ in the various 
aspects of the Christian movement until the 
church is beginning to take on form and 
strength beyond the seas. Some day, not far 
off, we hope, we shall hear that in every land 
the church of Christ has become self-sustain- 
ing, as it already is in a number of local in- 
stances, and that in every country with a 
vigor all their own these Christians shall be 
expressing the will of Christ for the world. 




ON A JOURNEY THROUGH THE MASS MOVEMENT VILLAGES 



ties for mutual helpfulness and service to the 
world. Specific evangelistic work, however, 
in the foreign field takes on many forms, of 
which perhaps the "revival meeting" type, so 
well known in the homeland, is the least 
prominent. Probably the method of Bible 
teaching and personal conversation, man to 
man, has borne the largest fruit in mission 
fields, though many persons have been con- 
verted in meetings of patients, in waiting- 
rooms of hospitals, and through the influence 
of successful recoveries due to the skill of 
Christian physicians. Meetings also of small 
groups in villages on street corners and else- 
where, with a simple exposition of gospel 
truth followed by informal questions and an- 
swers, and services in educational institu- 



That there is good, practical ground for this 
faith, facts and figures recently compiled, so 
far as Methodism is concerned, will bear wit- 
ness. There are in the foreign fields of the 
church 442,765 church members, with 1,283 
native ordained preachers and 2,516 church 
and chapel buildings. Thirty-six theological 
and biblical schools are busily engaged in the 
training of more leaders for the coming 
church. For this one item, the continuance 
and enlargement of the evangelistic move- 
ment and the erection of new churches, Meth- 
odism is to-day calling for $7,937,610. Surely 
ait a time like this, when we may hope soon to 
put the native organizations on their feet, the 
church at home will not fail to measure up to 
this imperative call. 



Significant Queries 



1. What is our present responsibility in re- 
lation to the mass movement in India? 

2. How would you characterize the con- 
verts in this revival? 



3. What is the distinction between evan 
gelization and Christianization? 

4. What is the final goal of missionary ef- 
fort? 



Special Suggestions to Teachers 



Lesson V. Make a careful outline of the 
lesson to guide you in teaching it. Study 
carefully again Jesus' miracles of healing. 
Search out instances where missionary phy- 
sicians have been called to serve non-Chris- 
tian rulers. Investigate the relation and 
value of medical work to the womanhood of 
the Orient. Get some physician to give a five- 
minute discussion before the class on "Orien- 
tal Diseases," or on "The Contribution of the 
Missionary to Medical Science." The type of 
endeavor considered in this lesson has a 
strong appeal not only to Christians who are 
luke-warm to the foreign missionary enter- 
prise, but also to persons entirely indifferent 
to the church. Therefore make the most pos- 
sible out of the lesson by conserving plenty of 
time for the class period, by following a well- 
prepared plan and by encouraging pertinent 
discussion. Locate our principal hospitals on 
the world map. Reference books are as fol- 
lows : Within the Purdah, by S. Armstrong 
Hopkins ; Medical Missions, their Place and 
Power, by John Lowe ; Opportunities in the 
Path of the Great Physician, by V. F. Pen- 
rose ; The Appeal of Medical Missions, by R. 
F. Moorshead. Secure also World Outlook* 
for December, 1917. 

Lesson VI. Write out a list of the most 
essential points in this lesson to shape the 
class discussion. Prepare yourself on the gen- 
eral subject of the relation of education to 
leadership. Pick out the leaders in the great 
*historical movements of the world and mark 
their previous training. Glance over the 
pages of "Who's Who in America" with the 
same end in view. Obtain sample courses of 
study from different types of missionary edu- 
cational institutions. Give attention to the uni- 
versal ambition of the natives for a modern 
education and to the place that graduates of 
our schools hold in the estimation of govern- 
ments. Utilize pictures of missionary schools 
and students. If possible secure some native 
graduate of a missionary institution to ad- 
dress the class for five minutes on "What the 
Mission School Did for Me." Locate the edu- 
cational institutions of Malaysia on a map of 
that region, and our other important schools 
and universities on a map of the world. Read 
and get the members of the class to read: 
India, Malaysia, and the Philippines, by W. 
F. Oldham ; The Making of a Christian Col- 
lege in India, by B. T. Badley ; Education of 
Women in China, by Margaret E. Burton; 
Educational Conquest of the Far East, by R. 



1 Single numbers of World Outlook can be obtained 
York, N. Y. 



E. Lewis, and World Outlook* for July, 1917, 
and January, 1916. 

Lesson VII. Formulate a number of im- 
portant questions in your own way embody- 
ing the gist of this lesson. Familiarize your- 
self with the great educational enterprise for 
the negro in this country at Tuskegee. Get it 
clearly in mind that an adequate view of sal- 
vation includes the redemption of the body for 
service as well as the soul for communion. 
Be able to show the relation of bodily training 
to moral and spiritual life. Emphasize, how- 
ever, that industrial training should ever go 
hand in hand with the evangelistic and edu- 
cational movements. Get photographs of the 
products of our industrial schools or if possi- 
ble secure for exhibition small pieces of 
furniture or other articles manufactured in 
these schools. Make use of the map of Africa ; 
locate our industrial schools and show the op- 
portunity for the expansion of this work. Con- 
sult the following books : Stewart of Lovedale, 
by James Wells; Daybreak in Livingstonia, 
by J. W. Jack ; Dayoreak in the Dark Conti- 
nent, by W. S. Naylor ; The Moffatts, by Ethel 
Daniels Hubbard ; Thinking Black, by Daniel 
Crawford; The Price of Africa, by S. Earl 
Taylor, World Outlook 1 for February, 1918. 

Lesson Till. Create a logical plan for les- 
son presentation beginning with the transla- 
tion of the Bible in Burma and leading up to 
the larger provisions for Christian literature 
there and in other lands. Show how essential 
such literature is to the success of missionary 
activity. Point out also the value of indus- 
trial training in connection with this work. If 
possible get samples of Bibles and other pub- 
lications in foreign languages for the inspec- 
tion of the class. Have some editor or pub- 
lisher address the class briefly on a theme di- 
rectly or indirectly related to the subject of 
this lesson. Use maps and the tables of popu- 
lation to visualize the growing demand pre- 
sented in various lands for books and period- 
icals and compare with the provisions actu- 
ally made in your own country for the read- 
ing public. Especially dwell on the great need 
for Sunday-school literature in the foreign 
field, and show why this is so important. Con- 
sult the following books : Adoniram Judson, 
by Edward Judson; Ann of Ava, by Ethel 
Daniels Hubbard ; Catalogues of Missionary 
Publishing Houses; Year Books of Japan, 
China, India; The Report of Edinburgh 
World's Missionary Cmiference, Vol. Ill, on 
"Christian Education" (reference to Chris- 
tian Literature). 

at 15 cents each, postpaid. Address 150 Fifth Avenue, New 
24 



LESSON V 

MEDICINE AND SUPERSTITION 

"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and tell John the things which ye 
hear and see: the mind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed 
and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good tidings preached 
to them." 

A Day in a Hospital 



Whoever has made a trip up the Yangtze 
River will never forget Wuhu, and, if he be a 
Methodist, he will be especially interested in 
that old Chinese city, because here is located 
one of our oldest and best missionary hos- 
pitals. The hospital can be plainly seen from 
the steamers and native boats that ply the 
river in such large numbers, for it stands out 
boldly against the sky on the summit of a high 
bluff. Here we spent a day with the physician 
in charge and caught a vision of a wonderful 
ministry in the name of Christ. 

Broken Bodies 

The diseases of the Orient! How numer- 
ous they are and how loudly they proclaim the 
tale of sin, filth, ignorance, and desperate pov- 
erty ! In almost any Far Eastern crowd there 
are numerous faces pitted into ugliness with 
the ravages of smallpox. The leper, too, is a 
frequent figure by the roadside and leper 
asylums, with their inmates rotting their way 
to inevitable death, abound. Thousands upon 
thousands of blind sadly reveal the tale of the 
sins of their parents. Ugly sores on heads and 
bulging arteries on the legs of the coolies 
strike pity to one's soul. Terrible venereal 
diseases are as common in the Orient as are 
the diseases of childhood in the homeland. 
Cripples twisted into inhuman shapes haunt 
the memory of the traveler for years after his 
trip. Only two or three insane asylums exist 
in all China with its nearly four hundred 
million people. The poor unfortunate of this 
type, if he become uncontrollable, is simply 
chained to a huge rock to batter his very life 
out in violent ravings. 

The Medicine of Old China 

What relief has the non-Christian world to 
offer this ever-diminishing, ever-increasing 
procession of miserable sufferers ? The native 
medicine of China is built upon a foundation 



of superstitious ignorance mingled with actual 
fear of the demons and devils that lurk every- 
where for their victims. One day we were 
walking down the streets of old Kashing,when 
we suddenly came upon the office of a native 
physician. He had a patient stripped to the 
waist and was sticking needles into him, that 
through the punctures the devils of disease 
might be enticed from the man's body. Occa- 
sionally there may be some remedial value in 
this procedure, but as practiced in China this 
common operation is an expression of dread- 
ful superstition and ignorance. Dr. Isaac T. 
Headland, in Borne By-Products of Christian 
Missions, tells of seeing a medical chart on 
which were indicated ten thousand spots on 
the human body that a doctor safely might 
puncture. He also tells of a Chinese portrait 
painter who had stomach trouble and swal- 
lowed a native remedy consisting of a large 
live green grasshopper. The man died within 
a few hours. Turnip and radish skins pasted 
on the forehead is also a Chinese "sure cure" 
for the headache. 

On another occasion we met at a Sunday- 
school gathering a bright looking young man 
who had recently been converted. When we 
were introduced to him, he uttered never a 
word, for he was totally dumb. How came he 
into this sad state? We heard from the mis- 
sionary the terrible story. When a mere boy 
he had been taken ill with some simple disease 
and his mother had called in a Chinese physi- 
cian who prescribed piercing the tongue with 
a pin and proceeded to jab the root of the poor 
boy's tongue again and again. So deeply did 
he go in the course of the cruel operation that 
he forever ruined the vocal chords and 
doomed the boy to speechlessness for the rest 
of his life. 

When the baby of a river woman has the 
colic — that, too, is due to evil spirits. But 
there is a remedy. The ignorant mother heats 
a pan burning hot "and lays it upon her child's 



25 



26 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



stomach until its little body is painfully blis- 
tered. Later the blister becomes a dreadful 
sore, and in most cases the little life goes out. 

The New Medicine 

Contrast with all this picture of desperate 
suffering and tragic incompetence of na- 
tive physicians, the beneficent 
ministry at Wuhu. Through 
its narrow, noisy, filthy streets 
we made our way on this par- 
ticular day into the hospital 
compound and were soon 
watching the busy physicians 
and nurses at their work. 
Here was a group of people at 
the dispensary, revealing by 
the expression of their eyes 
their strong confidence in the 
physician, and waiting pa- 
tiently for personal examina- 
tions or for prescriptions for 
loved ones sick at home. In 
the hospital proper we saw 
clean rooms and narrow white 
beds, on which lay many pale 
sufferers. . We proceeded to the 
operating room, with its modern facilities and 
instruments, and realized that this meant life 
to thousands who without it would simply 
have to wait in utter helplessness the call of 
death. We walked through a ward where 
Christian nurses were gently ministering to 
young girls who had been most brutally sinned 
against. We stood by victims of the most 
loathsome skin diseases. Here they were, the 
poor suffering humanity for whom Christ died, 
and here for the first time they were catching 
something of the meaning of his life. They 
were being made whole again, and the bright 
smiles of the convalescents showed that they 
understood and were deeply grateful. 

That evening a service was held in the 



chapel and the speaker dwelt on the parable of 
"The Wise and Foolish Builders," to an eager 
audience of patients, some of whom were al- 
ready Christians. Over the pulpit hung the 
picture of a man — the missionary physician 
who literally gave his life for the Chinese. 
Overworked, without furlough, without ade- 




DR. HOPKINS, OF PEKING, IN HIS OPERATING ROOM 



quate help, he toiled on and on constrained by 
the love of Christ until he dropped, still a 
young man, in his tracks. Then came that 
famous cablegram from one of the bishops of 
China, with its deserved rebuke to the church 
for allowing this tragedy to happen because 
of her failure to supply the much-needed 
funds for the hospital at Wuhu. The institu- 
tion here is a type of the medical work of the 
church now going on throughout the world, 
not only in the vast needs and opportunities, 
but also in the tragic struggle with meager 
equipment and depleted forces. Surely Chris- 
tian people ought to awaken to this task so 
practical and so beyond all debate as to its 
actual helpfulness. 



Healing the Bodies of Men 



Such efforts as these are of tremendous im- 
portance in the establishing of the kingdom of 
God in mission lands. They present a unique 
opportunity for catching the ears of the people 
for gospel preaching, a fact that frequently 
lias been the one most stressed by earnest 
advocates of medical missions. However, 
such helpfulness to the bodies of men is real 
Christian service in itself without reference 
to any indirect influence involved, and repre- 
sents a gospel obligation upon us, whether its 
beneficiaries are led to an open acceptance of 
Christ or not. It is difficult to believe that 
the Master himself in healing the sick, 
thought only or even mostly of their possible 
enlistment as his followers. Rather we be- 
lieve he was moved with spontaneous sym- 



pathy and helped because it was his nature to 
help. In such a spirit we also are able to en- 
gage in our modern task of healing. 

A Ministry Easily Understood 

Medical service thus affords a simple means 
of expressing Christ, easily understood even 
by the most ignorant native. Here, for in- 
stance, is a vivid sidelight on the appreciation 
of people when the service is rendered in such 
a true spirit. One writing of a certain mis- 
sionary physician in India says : "His name 
has become a household word in all this 
countryside and his fame has spread far 
and wide, and high and low, rich and poor 
flock to receive treatment at his skillful 
hands. Many patients travel hundreds of 



MEDICINE AND SUPERSTITION 



27 



miles for treatment. He is greatly be- 
loved, and does not spare himself in any 
way." And just because these natives are 
convinced that this man would help them 
anyway,, even if he did not represent a church 
organization, we find that "the influence of 
the hospital for Christianity in this district 
cannot be overestimated." 

The Variety and Distribution of Hospitals 

In almost every field of the church there 
are missionary hospitals. Some of these are 



as anti-tubercnlosis campaigns, street clean- 
ing, better sanitation, quarantine regulations, 
and other activities, all of which ought to be 
guided by expert leadership. But sorely over- 
loaded as they are with their immediate 
tasks, how can these missionary physicians 
reach out into these wider realms of social 
service ? 

Not all fields call with equal insistence for 
hospitals. There are probably some fields in 
which the church will never develop this 
phase of activity, but there are others where 







IB V j/i; 




m - 




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4 








4 :h 




'':^aj^g«l 


"y~y-*\ 


/*& 


- 


/^» 



PREACHING IN THE HOSPITAL CHAPEL, HAI.JU, KOREA 



general in their ministry ; others, especially of 
the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, are 
intended exclusively for women. In addition 
to the regular service rendered in the hos- 
pital centers, most physicians on the field do 
considerable itinerating among the towns and 
villages and far away rural places. Then, 
too, there is a number of institutions of hos- 
pital character devoted to specialized forms 
of treatment, as for example, the Tilaunia 
Sanitarium for Tuberculosis in Northern 
India, the department for crippled children in 
connection with the hospital at Kiukiang, 
China, and various leper • asylums in India 
and China. 

Important also are the medical and nurses' 
training schools in various stations where na- 
tive forces are being developed. Of the growth 
of our medical missions a shrewd observer 
says, "In no country where the Board has hos- 
pitals has the number of beds or the staff of 
physicians even begun to keep pace with the 
increase in the number of Christians." He 
then goes on to show how the service already 
rendered has started movements even among 
natives outside the church, for such reforms 



the need and opportunity are most compelling. 
Among the latter Africa especially is to be 
noted. Of it is said : "This has been a great 
year for us, since large numbers of native peo- 
ple have broken away from the witch doctors 
and their heathen customs. In some cases the 
witch doctors themselves have brought pa- 
tients to us for treatment." The leaders in 
China, Korea, India, and several other re- 
gions likewise are appealing strongly for med- 
ical reinforcement. 

A Typical Report 

In order to understand more fully some- 
thing of the demands and proportions of hos- 
pital work in mission lands, let us study a 
typical report, that of the Louisa Holmes Nor- 
ton Memorial Hospital at Haiju, Korea. The 
physician in charge reports for a recent year 
188 in-patients, 77 major and 267 minor opera- 
tions. At his dispensary there were 4,745 first 
visits and 7,005 return visits, and 300 patients 
treated on two itinerating circuits. Besides 
these there were 113 visits to outside patients. 
His total number of patients for the year was 
5,233, and the total number of treatments ad- 



28 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



ministered was 12,238. In addition to the 
above he carried on a nurses' training school 
during the same period. The financial side of 
the report is also interesting, $901.65 were re- 
ceived in fees, $1,525.88 from other sources, 
and $2,742.26 from the Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions for salaries and appropriations. The 
current expense item was $1,862.38, and 
$1,478.33 was expended on the property. Con- 
sidering that this is just one, and by no means 
among the largest of the nearly fifty institu- 



on furlough; we are still five thousand pa- 
tients short of the number we had when I 
left for America. More than anything else I 
need trained help and apparatus. Drugs have 
been very expensive this year, and we will 
finish the year with a deficit in spite of the 
fact that the money spent for helpers has 
been about half what it will cost to get an 
efficient staff. These cries coming from all of 
us all over the world make me wonder if 
there is any prospect of meeting them even 




ARMS FULL OF ORPHANS IN A METHODIST HOSPITAL IN CHINA 



tions of its kind in the foreign field of the 
church, the extent, importance and complex- 
ity of this phase of missionary activity be- 
comes apparent. 

Strengthen the Medical Work! 

At Tenping, China, we spent another day in 
a missionary hospital. We attended the clinic 
where a great crowd had gathered for relief 
from a wide variety of diseases. The faith- 
ful physician was doing his best to help each 
one, but next to the pathetic need of the mil- 
lions of people in the Min River region, rep- 
resented by this group of sufferers, the deep- 
est impression of the day was the physician's 
lack of resources. An old, inadequate build- 
ing, crowded wards, a small operating room 
with only half enough instruments, lack of 
assistants and nurses — here he was facing a 
well nigh overwhelming task almost without 
backing. The case could be duplicated in 
other regions. From a station in another 
field a doctor writes : "The work in the hos- 
pital has suffered during the time I was away 



though the Centenary Campaign is ever so 
successful." 

Some relief seems to be promised so far as 
this work in China is concerned, through the 
recent organization of the China Medical 
Board created by the Rockefeller Foundation, 
but the probabilities are that any forward 
movement inaugurated through the co-opera- 
tion of the Board of Foreign Missions with 
this Board will involve an assumption of the 
church's full share of responsibility, both in 
workers and financial outlay. In a number 
of cases the missionaries have been able to 
train natives and afterward send them to 
America for the completion of their medical 
education. These physicians have returned 
to their own lands and have assumed com- 
plete control of a few of the hospitals. Many 
native nurses, too, have learned to take re- 
sponsibility and are giving a most excellent 
account of themselves. There is, therefore, 
much hope for the future, provided the 
church shall measure up to the situation in 
men and money during the present critical 
period. 



IN SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 



29 



1. What can you say of conditions of dis- 
ease in the Orient? 

2. Describe briefly the old medicine of 
China. 

3. Contrast with it the modern ministry 
of the Christian physician and the Christian 
hospital. 



Points of Importance 

4. What motive ought to dominate the 
church in this type of work? 

5. Give a brief survey of the medical mis- 
sionary activity of Methodism. 

6. Illustrate the present needs of this work. 

7. Summarize the results in this depart- 
ment last year. 



LESSON VI 

IN SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 

"Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice? On the top of 
high places oy the way, where the paths meet she standeth; oeside the gates, at the 
entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors, she crieth aloud: Unto you, O men, 
I call; and m,y voice is to the sons of men.' 1 

Christmas Eve in Singapore 



We had been making our way into the trop- 
ics on the Peninsular and Oriental Steam- 
ship Malta for nearly a week, and, as we ap- 
proached the equator, even the sea breezes 
scarcely made the oppressive nights endur- 
able. Scattered over the decks half -clad pas- 
sengers tossed on the mattresses they had 
dragged out from their stuffy little state- 
rooms trying to get a few hours' rest. In the 
day time, too, the heat drove the travelers to 
their deck chairs in those parts of the boat 
favored by the shade and the breeze. At last, 
on December 24, our vessel slowly hove to at 
the wharf of that metropolis of the island 
world — Singapore. 

At the Cross- Roads of the Orient 

Here is the great cross-roads of the Far 
East, the center of business and trade activity 
for that vast region embracing about a mil- 
lion square miles of land area and sustaining 
a teeming population of some sixty or seventy 
millions of people. In expanse, Malaysia, 
with its multiplied variety of tongues and 
peoples, covers an area about equal to that 
of the whole United States. At this port then 
we disembark and take a waiting jinrickshaw 
down into the heart of the city. The streets 
of Singapore! They present a miniature of 
the whole Far East. Here are the dignified 
British official, the hustling American, the 
dusky Malay, the noisy Tamil, the thrifty 
Chinaman. The surging crowds come from 
everywhere, from far oft: India, from Ceylon, 
from Southern China, from Sumatra, Java, 
Borneo, and the more distant islands of the 
sea. There is no city in the world quite like 
Singapore. 

It is the day before Christmas and we are 
thinking about home and our own distant 
land. A telegraph office suggests a holiday 



greeting, and we signal our jinrickshaw man 
to halt at its door. Here we send a message 
of just one word, "Greetings," for the dis- 
patch of even so brief a cablegram across the 
stretch of ten thousand miles costs about 
eight dollars. It does not pay to be too volu- 
ble at this rate ! By a strange contradiction 




STUDENTS IN A METHODIST TEAINING SCHOOL 
IN MANILA 

this message was delivered in a middle west- 
ern city in the United States the day before it 
was sent ! Such is the miracle wrought by 
the difference in time between these two dis- 
tant sections of the world. 

Three Christmas Entertainments 

That Christmas Eve in Singapore is never 
to be forgotten. A delightful dinner with 
one of the missionary families at a table laden 
with the holiday delicacies of the homeland 
mingled with queer tropical fruits, the decora- 
tions of red and green, the cries of joy from 
the children over their presents, brought far- 



30 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



off America into the midst of these strange 
surroundings. But we were to be reminded 
more forcibly than ever of our own Christian 
land during the course of that eventful even- 
ing. About seven o'clock we started out bare- 
headed, clad in white duck suits and tennis 
shoes for a round of entertainments. First 
we made our way to a great hall which was 
packed to the doors with Chinese who had 
come to celebrate the birth of our Saviour. 
There were songs, dialogues, and addresses, 
in which participated representatives of the 
various congregations of Chinese Christians 







-- 




XM' r ■ 


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»- ■■■■:*■■■ ■'■■.;- 


1 ' ; : - 



A GOSPEL TEAM IN INDIA 

scattered throughout the city. After a half 
hour or more here we started out again for 
the English-speaking church. Once within 
its doors, we were back in the home-land 
again, for there was scarcely an Oriental 
touch anywhere except for the dark faces of 
a few Eurasians seated here and there. The 
audience who had come to enjoy the Sunday- 
school exercises consisted almost entirely of 
British and Americans. The songs were sung 
and the recitations were all given in English, 
and at the close the children received their 
presents from the great Christmas tree on 
the platform. We did not tarry long, however, 
at the English church, but hastened on to the 
third entertainment of the evening at Old- 
ham Hall. This is a boys' boarding school, so 
popular that of late years many more appli- 
cations for entrance are received than can 
be accepted. The program that evening con- 
sisted of Mother Goose impersonations and 
recitations, and served to reveal in a striking 
way the potency of modern educational in- 
fluences upon these Chinese boys, many of 
whom are sons of wealthy, representative 
business men of Malaysia. How rapidly 
these alert youths were catching the spirit of 
our modern clay and how quickly these teach- 
ers were transforming the coming generation 



of one of the world's oldest civilizations ! The 
entertainment formed our point of contact 
with an extraordinary type of Christian activ- 
ity now going on in a land of unusual oppor- 
tunity. 

A Lecture That Paid 

The story of the inauguration and growth 
of Methodist missionary work in 1884 in this 
great island empire abounds in interesting 
incidents. Bishop Thoburn tells of the strate- 
gic experience of the first missionary in this 
field, William F. Oldham, afterward bishop, 
in these words : "Walking down the street in 
the Chinese quarter his attention was one day 
drawn to a sign above a doorway, 'Celestial 
Reasoning Association.' On inquiry he 
learned from a Christian Chinaman that a 
debating society was held in that place, where 
the young Chinese of the city were accus- 
tomed to meet and debate questions for the 
improvement of their English. The mission- 
ary at once purposed to become a member of 
that club, but was politely informed that none 
but Chinese were admitted to it. He then of- 
fered to deliver a lecture before the club if 
he might be allowed that privilege, and his 
offer was immediately accepted. He chose for 
his subject, 'Astronomy,' and provided him- 
self with a blackboard and colored crayons, 
by which he succeeded in making his lecture 
intelligible to his hearers. The lecture was 
delivered not in the club room, but in the resi- 
dence of one of the leading Chinese residents, 
and all the leaders of Chinese society were 
present. A sumptuous repast was served up 
at the close, and the lecturer treated with the 
most distinguished consideration. At a single 
stroke he had won not only the respect but 
also the confidence of the men whose influence 
he most valued." The lecture had made a 
profound impression and a few days there- 
after the young missionary received a request 
from the host of the evening asking him to 
serve as his private tutor. It was the open- 
ing wedge. Other offers of like character 
followed, resulting in a proposal from Dr. 
Oldham to the Chinese merchants to open a 
school for their children. This was accepted 
and money provided later for a building. 

A Remarkable Educational System 

Years of rapid prosperous growth along 
educational lines ensued, and the Chinese be- 
came so deeply interested that they not only 
gladly gave their children over to these new 
institutions of learning, but also furnished in- 
creasing sums of money to finance the move- 
ment. To-day, in the Malaysia Conference, in 
addition to evangelistic, industrial, medical, 
publishing, and other activities, we have, as 
a result of the lecture on astronomy, four 
large Anglo-Chinese schools of higher grades, 



IN SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 



31 



sixty-five primary schools, 10,000 pupils, and 
250 teachers, eighty-five of whom are from 
the United States. The Anglo-Chinese school 
in Singapore alone has an enrollment of 
nearly 2,000. In the last four years the boys 
in attendance upon our day schools in Malay- 
sia have increased 47 per cent, and the girls 
78 per cent. With 250,000 Chinese and 60,000 
Indian immigrants arriving in Malaysia an- 
nually, there is practically no limit to this 
vast educational opportunity. So far as this 
educational work is concerned it is at present 



almost entirely self-supporting on an annual 
budget of $232,000, but there is pressing need 
for a great central university at Singapore 
and strong reinforcement along specific evan- 
gelistic and medical lines if we are to have a 
vigorous organization in Malaysia with the 
coming years. Moreover, leaders on the field 
say that a strong development of Sunday- 
school work would capture the future and 
help greatly to enlist the graduates of these 
educational institutions as active members of 
the church. 



Educational Progress in Mission Lands 



Unlike some mission boards which insist 
that the sole business of the church in foreign 
fields is to preach the gospel, our own denomi- 
nation pursues the policy of encouraging all 
plans that make for the more abundant life, 
both in an individual and collective sense. 
Therefore, the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
in perfect keeping with the ideal of her great 
Founder, establishes schools wherever the 
gospel is preached, and calls upon her follow- 
ers in foreign fields not only to surrender the 
will in obedience to Christ, but also the whole 
life to the training processes of Christian edu- 
cation.. 

Types of Schools 

From the simple little ddy schools of con- 
gested cities and rural regions even to the 
great universities our educational plans aim 
to offer training to the youth of these non- 
Christian lands that shall fit them for the 
largest service to the world. Primary schools 
furnishing the rudiments of education, inter- 
mediate and high schools taking the chil- 
dren into the broader realms of learning, col- 
leges and universities to round out their 
knowledge and culture, mean opportunity 
spelled with very large letters to the poverty- 
stricken youth of China, India, and other mis- 
sion fields. In addition to these educational 
facilities the church also furthers post-grad- 
uate, professional, and other special types of 
training. Numerous theological, Bible, and 
deaconess training schools aim to mould the 
future leadership of the church. The internes 
in mission hospitals find valuable training in 
connection with their duties under the tuition 
of Christian physicians, and native nurses 
are also prepared for their profession. In- 
dustrial training schools, especially in Africa, 
India, Malaysia, and China, bring a new effi- 
ciency and a better conception of the dignity 
of labor. 

Interesting Figures 

To summarize we have to-day in the for- 
eign field of the church twelve colleges and 
universities, with 21,155 students; thirty-six 



theological and Bible schools, with 1,496 stu- 
dents; ninety -four high schools, with 14,251 
students ; and 2,853 elementary schools, with 
78,119 pupils, making a total student body of 
96,021. A total of 5,228 teachers are training 




A TRACK TEAM IN CHINA 

this vast army of children and young people. It 
is difficult to realize the full significance of 
such statistics, but it may be sufficient simply 
to say that right here in this body of students 
is to be found the future leadership of the 
kingdom of God beyond the seas, and we may 
well be thankful that it is to be an intelligent 
leadership. 

The Strategy of Christian Education 

It would be difficult to overestimate the 
value and the importance of the educational 
phase of the missionary propaganda. With 
only one out of every ten of the youth of 
China in school and with less than one out 
of every ten persons in India able to read, we 
see in these two typical instances something 
of the great world need for education. If in- 
quiry be made as to the part government 
schools play several answers will throw light 



32 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



upon the situations in different countries. In 
China governmental provision for the train- 
ing of youth is so woefully insufficient that 80 
per cent, of the students desiring an educa- 
tion above the high school can find it only in 
missionary institutions. In India the govern- 



the sinister possibilities from the political 
viewpoint. Complete indifference to the calls 
of the higher life, sneering agnosticism or 
blatant atheism are among the possible out- 
comes from the religious viewpoint. In the 
economic world likewise there are great dan- 




A PHYSIOLOGY CLASS IN "WILLIAM NAST COLLEGE, KIUKIANG, CHINA 



ment schools are high grade, but anti-Chris- 
tian in sentiment. Government education in 
Japan is altogether lacking in Christian at- 
mosphere, while the public school system in 
the Philippine Islands is neutral, with a lean- 
ing away from religion. To the facts of the 
great need for training and the quite gener- 
ally non-Christian nature of such educational 
facilities as are afforded by governments in 
mission lands, a third great fact must be 
added in seeking a true estimate of the whole 
matter. That is the pathetic hunger almost 
universally apparent for educational oppor- 
tunity. The great need for training, then, the 
insufficient provisions to meet it and this earn- 
est desire of the people for education, thus 
combine to indicate a challenging opportunity 
for the Church of Christ. But beyond the 
actual need in this respect there are other 
considerations that point the supreme strat- 
egy of Christian education on the mission 
field. The leadership of the future church 
and kingdom must be a trained leadership if 
humanity is to go forward. No amount of 
good intention or even Christian experience 
of itself is going to be sufficient to lead the 
Christian forces to final victory. There must 
be skill and understanding added to our- 
worthy purposes else they will sadly fail. In 
the wider ranges of national and world life 
also, nothing can so contribute to a new order 
of things in society and government as Chris- 
tian training. In India the seething religious 
and social unrest is largely the result of 
Christian influences. Likewise in China and 
South America we find great upheavals in the 
old program of life. What will be the out- 
come? A crude imitation of democracy, an 
emotional socialism, rank anarchy are among. 



gers in this time of disturbance. Cut-throat 
competition, industrial oppression, dire labor 
difficulties may mark the new day in these 
awakening nations. Surely in the face of 
these and other threatening menaces there is 
a high call for wisdom — the wisdom of the 
Book of Proverbs, which combines in its 
meaning wide knowledge, thorough training, 
and the spirit of righteousness. 

The Results of Christian Education 

The schools and colleges of foreign fields 
are still in the pioneer period, but results be- 
yond all calculation have already crowned 
their limited efforts. In India the Hindus 
are re-examining their faith, and reform or- 
ganizations seeking to make Hinduism intel- 
lectually respectable are emerging as the re- 
sult of the goad of Christian teaching. In 
China the inception and growth of the new re- 
public is directly traceable to mission schools. 
Japan has been largely made over by the in- 
fluence direct and indirect of Christian mis- 
sions. No less a personage than the great 
Count Okuma himself recently declared that 
the spirit of Jesus Christ had made modern 
Japan what she is. In South America the 
thin line of Christian schools is exercising a 
disintegrating influence on the ancient Cath- 
olic-pagan organization, and we are beginning 
to hear of free speech and a free press. So 
in every field Christian education is making 
for the more abundant life while old evils are 
toppling under the white light of Christian 
intelligence. It is no time to falter or re- 
trench. It is rather an hour for a vastly en- 
larged program with multiplied schools and 
colleges everywhere. 



TRAINING THE HAND AND THE EYE 



33 



Memory Helps 

1. Tell the story of Methodist beginnings 
in Malaysia. 

2. Describe the educational movement in 
this field. 

3. Why is it so important in this particular 
region? 



4. Give facts and figures bearing on our 
educational work in the world field. 

5. What can you say of the strategy of 
Christian training in mission lands? 

6. Enumerate some results of this kind of 
effort. 



LESSON VII 

TRAINING THE HAND AND THE EYE 

"Study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, 
even as ice charged you; that ye may walk becomingly toward them that are with- 
out, and may have need of nothing" 

A New Method in an Old Field 



The continent of Africa has perhaps been 
the scene of the most thrilling events in the 
missionary history of the world. Christian- 
ity was first introduced here at Pentecost, and 
among its great leaders are such names as 
Tertullian, Augustine, and Cyprian. At Alex- 
andria there flourished during the early cen- 
turies of the Christian era a Christian col- 
lege and missionary training school among 
whose principals were Pantsenus, Origen, and 
Clement. During the Moslem conquest of 
North Africa the famous library of 700,000 
volumes in this city was destroyed. Two 
hundred Franciscan and Dominican monks, 
in the attempt to rescue captive Christians 
from the invading Moslems, lost their lives in 
the missionary endeavors of the Crusades. 

Pioneer Missionaries 

Then came Raymond Lull, the prophet of 
modern missionary work in Africa. A mis- 
sionary of the old days, he nevertheless pos- 
sessed a youthful spirit even down to old age. 
It has been said of him : "No more original 
missionary has ever been produced." The 
story of his three attempts to overcome his 
fear in undertaking the mission in Africa, 
and of the final victory, parallels the biblical 
tale of Jonah. His encounters with the Mos- 
lems, his numerous narrow escapes from vio- 
lent death, and his final stoning, constitute a 
thrilling biography. George Schmidt, the 
Moravian, came to South Africa in 1737. 
After four years of patient toil he baptized 
his first native convert, and continued his 
work for two years longer among the Hot- 
tentots, until hatred for him and his efforts 
forced his return to his native land. Mission- 
ary beginnings followed in West Africa in 
1796, in North Africa in 1825, and in East 
Africa in 1844. No Christian, young or old, 
should fail to read the fascinating tale of the 
lives of Robert and Mary Moffatt, as it is re- 
corded by Ethel Daniels Hubbard in the vol- 
ume entitled, The Moffatts. Moffatt came to 



South Africa in 1817, and the story of his 
life and that of his wife in this field reads like 
fiction rather than plain truth. Such are 




l IN THE CARPENTER SHOP OF AN AFRICAN MISSION 
SCHOOL 

some of the events and personalities con- 
nected with the early evangelization of the 
vast Dark Continent. 

The Greatest of Them All 

But there is still another name indelibly 
stamped on the records of Christian history, 
and the scene of his sufferings and triumph is 
once more — Africa. That name is Living- 
stone. Who has not read the story of his 
early missionary work, of his encounter with 
the lion and his providential escape from 
death, of his wanderings and valuable ex- 
plorations? What thrilling reading there is 
in Livingstone, Lost and Found! His death 
on his knees in the wilderness of Africa and 
the burial of his heart in the land to which 
he had given his life is a fitting climax to the 
eventful career of this heroic Scotchman. No 
wonder the world remembers the lesson of 
his life and the effect of that life on the peo- 
ple of Africa. After the great explorer died 
and the burial service had been spoken over 
his heart, his loyal native companions started 



34 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



on their historic trip of nine weary months, 
with the body of their leader, to Zanzibar, 
whence it was taken to England and finally 
interred in Westminster Abbey. 

A New Idea in Missions 

James Stewart, of Lovedale, another 
Scotchman, received his commission directly 
from the great Livingstone himself, and like 
him gave his life to Africa with unquenchable 



and invent types of manual labor to train 
the hand and the eye of the native and to give 
his graduates suitable trades. There were 
five main departments at Lovedale, agricul- 
ture, building, carpentry, engineering and 
blacksmithing. printing and book-binding. A 
report also says that the institution is now 
manufacturing its own electricity, both for 
power and lighting. Of course, educational 
and evangelistic work have also been carried 
on simultaneously with the industrial train- 




LEARNING TO BUILD BRICK HOUSES IN AFRICA 



zeal. So enthusiastic was he about the Dark 
Continent that even before he sailed for his 
field his friends began to call him "Stewart 
Africa nus." As Livingstone abandoned the 
routine work expected of a missionary in a 
restricted district for the larger work of ex- 
ploration that he might open a way for 
Christian civilization, so Stewart found a new 
avenue of approach and service in addition 
to the generally accepted duties of the mis- 
sionary. He himself says of his trip to Africa, 
"We were going as civilizers as well as preach- 
ers, and we took Scotch cart-wheels and 
axles, American trucks, wheelbarrows, win- 
dow frames, and many other additional tools 
and implements which a sailor would describe 
under the one word 'gear.' " In a word Liv- 
ingstone's work was extensive, Stewart's in- 
tensive. Both served the cause of civilization 
and both furthered in inestimable measure the 
interests of the kingdom of God. The success 
of James Stewart has established the value 
of industrial missions, so far as Africa is con- 
cerned. At Lovedale, several hundred miles 
north of Cape Town, he began his work with 
the purpose of furnishing an elementary edu- 
cation for all, industrial education for the 
great majority, and a higher education for 
the exceptional minds that might come under 
his care. He immediately began to develop 



ing. though there can be no doubt but that the 
last has played no small part in the task of 
Christianization. Moreover, the fact is that 
no mission in the world has made a better 
record in the actual saving of souls and keep- 

, ing them saved than has Lovedale with its 
strong industrial emphasis. Up to the year 
1900, the Lovedale Industrial Mission had 
graduated 1.600 students from a four-year 
course, and of these only fifteen, or less than 
1 per cent., had reverted to heathenism. 

When Dr. Stewart returned to Great 
Britain after his first eight years of success- 
ful experiment, he asked for .$50,000 to open 
similar work in Central Africa. They gave 
him $100,000. He said to the General Assem- 
bly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1874 : 
"What I would humbly suggest as the truest 
memorial of Livingstone, is the establishment 
by this church, or by several churches to- 
gether, of an institution at once industrial 
and educational, to teach the truths of the 
gospel and the arts of civilized life to the na- 
tives of the country." The result of this pro- 
posal was the foundation of the Livingstonia 
Mission in Central Africa, where the indus 
trial idea has been carried out with great 
thoroughness. All the pupils from the young- 

I est to the oldest in the institution are required 

<\ to fcaJie this training. 



General manual in 



TRAINING THE HAND AND THE EYE 



35 



b (ruction is furnished and in addition spe- 
cial technical training. Courses in printing 
and book-binding, carpentry and saw milling. 
building', brick making, stone quarrying, -ag- 
riculture, and telegraphy are offered, and 
such tasks as road making, gardening, tailor- 
ing, mat weaving, etc., are assigned to the pu- 
pils. A system of apprenticeship prevails in 
the school, and provision is made for re- 
muneration in the case of service rendered by 
these students outside of regular sessions. 
Says Mr. Farley Daly in connection with a 
report of this work at Livingstonia : "The 
African needs to have his hands trained as 
well as his head. The most useful and suc- 



cessful men among them are almost invari- 
ably those who have received some industrial 
training." Thus this unique type of mission- 
ary endeavor which seems at first thought to 
have no vital connection with the program of 
evangelization, proves upon reflection and ex- 
perience to be a most important factor in 
building the kingdom of God in benighted 
lands. It not only has great influence and 
power in the building of individual character, 
but it also helps in no small measure to 
redeem the community and to bring in a new 
social and economic order, or as Dan Craw- 
ford says, it contributes to the "doing of 
earthly things in a heavenly manner." 



Industrial Missions in Methodism 



The Scope of the Work 

Methodism has developed centers for in- 
dustrial training, especially in Africa and 
India, and to some extent in China and else- 
where. At Old Umtali, in the Rhodesia Mis- 
sion Conference on the east coast of Africa, is 
located the Central Training School, with 
property to the value of $59,119 and an an- 
nual income of $2,850. Here also the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society has the Fairfield 
Girls' School. Both institutions are doing a 
splendid work in spite of the embarrassment 
occasioned by lack of adequate facilities, a 
limited teaching force, and the multitudes of 
young people pressing for an education. , Ag- 
riculture, brick making, carpentry, and other 
trades are taught in the Central Training 
School, while the girls at Old Umtali are in- 
structed in sewing, laundry work, and home 
making. The superintendent of the mission 
says. "Our approach to the uplifting of the 
native must be through industrial trades. He 
must learn to work with his hands." There 
is a very urgent need here for a new build- 
ing with equipment which will cost $12,000. 
Machinery and equipment also for wood work- 
ing, blacksmithing, and leather working, and 
better facilities for handling the departments 
of agriculture, gardening, husbandry, and 
tailoring would multiply the influence of the 
mission manyfold and result in tremendous 
advances for the kingdom of God on the east 
coast. At Kambini, in the Inhambane Mis- 
sion Conference, there is another industrial 
training center, known as the Bodine Train- 
ing School, instructing in agriculture, car- 
pentry, printing, bookbinding, and other 
trades. The new saw mill and electric light 
plant, recently given to the mission, has 
greatly added to its efficiency. Some of the 
students in this institution have received cer- 
tificates from the Portuguese Government. 
Other centers of industrial training under the 
supervision of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church are located elsewhere in Africa and in 



India, at Shahjahanpur, Allahabad, Calcutta, 
Cawnpore, Aligarh, Kolar, Pakaur, Baroda, 
Godhra, and Nadiad ; in Malaysia at Sitia- 
wan ; in China at Foochow, Hinghwa. and 




LEAKNING TO IRON IN ANGOLA, AFRICA 

Chinkiang ; and in Japan at Sendai. There is 
a boys' industrial school in Venice, Italy, and 
considerable industrial and philanthropic 
work in connection with Pastor Bast's great 
church in Copenhagen. Denmark. 

Needs, Opportunities, and Limitations. 

There is not a shadow of a doubt but that 
there is tremendous need for industrial train- 
ing in almost every non-Christian land. 
Bishop Hartzell says of our work in the Dark 
Continent : "There is room enough on the 
lower end of the continent for the whole of 
the United States with her more than 100,- 
000.000 people: Europe, with her many states 
and hundreds of millions, can ho placed on 
one side of Central Africa; China, with her 
400,000,000, could be accommodated on the 



36 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



other half of Central Africa, and there is 
room for all India and Wales, Scotland and 
Ireland, in the lower valley of the Nile and 
along the coasts of the Mediterranean, while 
there is plenty of room for Porto Rico and the 
Philippines on the Island of Madagascar. 
Twenty-five industrial centers well placed in 
pagan Africa would constitute an inestimable 
asset in building the manhood and woman- 
hood of the 20,000,000 black people for whom 
we are directly responsible in the regions we 
already occupy." We now have about 20,000 
acres of land in Rhodesia and Portuguese 
East Africa devoted to industrial and other 
work, but in view of the great need of more 
land for agricultural training and the fact 
that native chiefs are quite generally willing 
to furnish this free for such purpose, it would 
seem that the church ought to give great heed 
to the bishop's wise counsel regarding the 
work in this vast field. A specific task that 
would bring immediate and far-reaching re- 
sults, for example, would be the restoration 
and development of our industrial farm at St. 
Paul, Liberia. 

Africa, then, with its pathetic lack of facil- 
ities, and its low standard of living, India 
with its poverty-stricken population and its 
iron system of caste, and China, with its la- 
borers doing the work of animals for wages 
that scarcely keep body and soul together, 
need the new social and economic order that 
can only come as these peoples are trained 
for an intelligent coping with the complex 
tasks of human life. The same is true in 
other fields. Moreover, such training has a 
highly valuable moral, not to say spiritual 
effect upon the worker. He learns the dig- 
nity of labor, faithfulness, patience, and self- 
sacrifice. These are essentials in any worthy 
character. And when such work is carried on 
under Christian auspices it becomes a direct 
agency for bringing in the kingdom of God 
both in an individual and in a collective sense. 
The doors are wide open everywhere for such 
a type of work. Governments invariably ap- 
prove of it, natives quite generally desire it 
when once they see its value and get rid of 
false notions regarding work with the hands, 
and the supporters of missionary work who 
would not perhaps be so deeply impressed 
with evangelistic and general educational en- 
deavors can be enlisted in the promotion of 
the more tangible and apparently more prac- 
tical efforts of an industrial mission. 



This type of service is, however, under cer- 
tain limitations. It must never be taken for 
granted that because we have taught a native 
to be skillful with his hands and have en- 
abled him to enjoy the larger comforts of 
modern life, that therefore we have neces- 
sarily changed his spirit or character. No 
shifting or improving of environment is suffi- 
cient in itself to accomplish such a change. 
Hence it is highly important that industrial 
efforts should be permeated with the spirit of 
Christ and linked up with other educational 
forces calculated to cultivate the mind and 
heart. Frequently, too, practical difficulties 
emerge as the work is carried on. Such are 
the danger of overproduction of skilled labor 
in a new field where the demand for such 
service has not yet been created, suspicion on 
the part of the ignorant that a mission is ex- 
ploiting the natives for its own good, and com- 
petition with other skilled European or Amer- 
ican labor in the same locality. On the side 
of resources, however, lies the greatest ob- 
stacle to the enlargement of this very valu- 
ble type of missionary activity. Adequate 
plants and equipment for industrial training 
are so costly as almost to prohibit mission 
boards undertaking the work in any very 
large way in view of the already insufficient 
incomes under which they are compelled to 
operate. Such training also requires skilled 
leaders and teachers who would be willing to 
forego the opportunities and compensations 
of the homeland for the sacrifices and pri- 
vations of the mission field. These can be de- 
veloped, although just now they are few in 
number. One of the best solutions of the 
problem would be through the activity of 
Christian business men deeply interested in 
world redemption. Associations of such lay- 
men could take up the work in various fields 
in co-operation with the Board in charge, and 
with the investment of capital and of thought 
could render a most significant service for 
the kingdom of God. 

This does not imply any commercializing 
of the Gospel. Quite the contrary. Such en 
terprises as are in, mind are to be such ex 
amples of Christian dealing and high com- 
mercial honor as will give reproof to that 
secular exploitation of native races, which in 
many instances has been a powerful deter- 
rent to the Christian propaganda. "Christ 
for every life and for all of life" means 
Christ for the African and for industry- 



High Points 



1. Paul, the apostle, and industrial mis- 
sions. 

2. Africa, the oldest mission field. 

3. The story of David Livingstone. 

4. The work of "Stewart of Lovedale." 



5. The character and purpose of industrial 
missions. 

6. Methodist industrial work in Africa. 

7. The need and opportunity for this 
method of Christianization. 



THE MISSIONARY PRINTING PRESS 



37 



LESSON VIII 

THE MISSIONARY PRINTING PRESS 

-"Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for 
correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be 
complete, furnished completely unto every good work." 

A Hundred Years Ago in Burma 



It was evening time and we were within 
the temple grounds at Pegu, two missionaries 
and a lone American traveler. The place was 
deserted except for our little party as we 
moved about among the multitudes of shrines 
and images of Buddha in 
meditation, the glorious light 
of a full moon bathing the 
whole scene in a flood of sil- 
ver splendor. No, we were 
not alone after all! There 
in that dark corner sitting on 
the floor were the figures of 
a man and a woman, she 
smoking a huge Burmese 
cigar. Would we have our 
fortunes told? "You're a 
great official." "You will 
soon be married." "You are 
on a prosperous journey." 
Meanwhile on that tall pa- 
goda covered with costly gold 
leaf in the center of the 
grounds, the diminutive "tem- 
ple bells are callin'," as they 
swing in the gentle breeze and 
add their magic touch to the 
fantastic surroundings. The 
spell of Burma! No wonder 
JKipling was fascinated and 
wrote his famous "Mandalay." 
The very spirit of the inscrutable Buddha 
seems to permeate the land. The mys- 
tery and hopelessness of life, the noth- 
ingness after death emphasize the "Let us 
eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." So 
yonder image of the Buddha looks down un- 
moved in calm fixity as men come and go in 
their mechanical devotions and seek to find 
some solace in vain propitiation and super- 
stitious soothsaying. It is the Burma of all 
the nonprogressive centuries, of the silent 
•cycles of Cathay. 

An Up-To-Date Publishing House 

By contrast the next day we caught a 
glimpse of the new Burma awakening from 
this fatal sleep of its atheistic faith. We were 
walking down the main business street of the 
capital city, Rangoon. Suddenly our atten- 
tion was arrested by a sign that read, "Amer- 
ican Baptist Mission Press." Here was a 
fine, modern building, and we entered an in- 




ON A SHANGHAI STREET 
CORNER 



viting store, on the first floor, which might 
have been one of the great Methodist book 
stores in the United States, for here was an 
ample stock of well-displayed Bibles and mis- 
cellaneous books, a corps of busy clerks, a 
crowd of customers. What a 
sense of refreshment comes to 
the tired traveler in Oriental 
lands when he finds occasion- 
ally a good book store with 
the latest publications ! We 
had the experience first in 
Tokyo, then in Lucknow, and 
afterward in a few other 
great centers. And so we 
eagerly purchased a new sup- 
ply of books at this Baptist 
store. The "Press" in Ran- 
goon is the fine development 
of the last hundred years of 
Christian endeavor in Burma. 
It began with a primitive 
hand press brought across the 
Bay of Bengal from Seram- 
pore. To-day, from such a 
small beginning we find a 
great institution spreading 
Christian literature with an 
influence incalculable for the 
building of the kingdom of 
God and employing two hun- 
dred men and women to print Bibles, school 
books, and general Christian literature in 
the various dialects of the land. 

Back of the Institution — A Man 

And what lies back of this great publish- 
ing institution, the Rangoon Baptist College 
with its thousand students, and the chain of 
Burmese Baptist churches numbering one 
hundred and fifty-eight with their ten thou- 
sand members? More than a hundred years 
of faithful missionary service inaugurated 
by a brilliant graduate of Brown and Ando- 
ver. As we walked along one of the streets 
of Burma's chief city one morning, our friend 
suddenly halted, and pointing just ahead, 
said, "There lived Adoniram Judson." This 
was the name of that famous pioneer who, 
with his wonderful wife, Ann Hasseltine Jud- 
son, blazed the way for the kingdom of God in 
this far-away land. The lives of these two 
read like the biographies of the early saints, 



38 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



for they not only "endured as seeing him who 
is invisible," but actually suffered dreadful 
persecutions and faced the death of martyrs. 
They arrived in Rangoon on the 13th day of 
July, 1813, after many strange and trying ex- 
periences in the more than a year since they 
had left America. Long, weary months and 
even years, spent in acquiring the difficult 
language and in making friends, followed 
without a word from home. At last there 




IX A CHINESE COMPOSING ROOM 

was one convert, later the number grew to ten 
and still later to fifteen. But still more ex- 
cruciating days were ahead, for just as things 
began to look auspicious for the little mission, 
the British-Burmese war broke out, and 
Adoniram Judson was seized, fettered, and 
imprisoned. There ensued times of indescrib- 
able darkness for Judson and his frail but 



patient Ann. How dreadful they were is told 
by Ethel Daniels Hubbard in that thrilling 
story, Ann of Ava. More than once the im- 
prisoned missionary, broken in health, faced 
death, but as many times bis courageous wife 
interceded with the governor in his behalf. 

A Bible in a Pillow 

The imprisonment marked a cruel interrup- 
tion to Adoniram Judson's most cherished 
task, the laborious translation of the Bible 
into the Burmese. After he had been seized, 
the little home at Ava was searched and 
much of the property taken away, but his 
wife saved the precious roll of unfinished 
Bible manuscript representing ten years of 
most exacting toil. One day she concealed 
the roll in an old rag pillow which the sneer- 
ing jailer permitted her servant messenger to 
carry into the prison for the comfort of her 
husband. When matters grew worse and the 
missionary had suddenly been removed to 
Aungbinle, where he was to have been exe- 
cuted, the jailer tore open the old pillow and 
cast away the apparently worthless roll. But 
that faithful native Christian, Moung Ing, 
rescued the precious document, which he care- 
fully concealed until safe and sound he turned 
it over finally to its rightful owner. Within 
the next eight years the whole Bible was 
translated, and the new church was permitted 
to read the Word of God in their own tongue. 
Such were some of the sufferings of the 
pioneers of the cross in this land, and such is 
the story of enduring patience that gave the 
Bible, and. indirectly, the blessings of Chris- 
tian civilization to the Burmese. The tale 
could be duplicated in many another land, and 
almost without exception the gift of the Word 
of God has been followed by developments and 
influences the measure of whose vitality and 
outcome no man can estimate. 



Spreading Christian Literature 



The publication and distribution of good 
Christian literature is not merely an impor- 
tant phase of missionary activity. It is a 
prime essential to the success of the whole 
propaganda. In the early years of modern mis- 
sionary history efforts in this field were de- 
voted mainly to translating and printing the 
Bible. Later a simple tract literature and 
hymnals were added. These publications 
were circulated in a limited way by mission- 
aries and native workers. But to-day in the 
foreign, as well as in the home field, it is be- 
coming increasingly apparent that we must 
enlarge our ideas of Christian literature and 
of its significance in the task of world evan- 
gelization. The time demands not only the 
Bible, but also a comprehensive literature of 



interpretation, historical, philosophical, and 
doctrinal, besides books on sociological and 
educational subjects as well as the texts re- 
quired by schools and colleges. Beyond this 
the intellectual awakening in these mission 
lands is creating an increasing demand for 
the best in the general field of poetry, science, 
and fiction, and a high grade periodical liter- 
ature. 

The Value of the Printed Page 

It is true that the high rate of illiteracy in 
many of these countries militates against a 
widespread use of Christian literature, but 
it must not be forgotten that one man who 
can read will convey the information to hun- 
dreds of his less fortunate friends, and that 



THE MISSIONARY PRINTING PRESS 



J9 



therefore such literature is absolutely neces- 
sary to the training of an efficient native 
leadership. Books and magazines are the si- 
lent educational influences constantly at work 
helping to produce the teachers, preachers, 
physicians, lawyers, and statesmen of to-mor- 
row. Furthermore, the progress in govern- 
mental plans for education and the awaken- 
ing ambitions of the coming generation in 
these lands make it imperative that a great 
Christian literature immediately be created 
to shape the course of this new life. This 
literature, again, is sorely needed to supplant 
the growing list of positively atheistic writ- 
ings that are beginning to flood the Orient, 
especially Japan. One critical authority says, 
"The native non-Christian press is now sup- 
plying a deluge of secular literature, much of 
it obscene." This would seem to add still an- 
other reason for a high evaluation of Chris- 
tian publications in mission fields. 

The Present Scope of the Enterprise 

Methodism has rightly appraised the 
printed page and has read the signs of the 
times as to the need for larger development, 
but it may be said with truth that most of 
our provisions for Christian literature on the 
foreign field have thus far been sadly inade- 
quate. We have publishing houses in Shang- 
hai, Changli, Tokio, Manila, Singapore, Luck- 
now, Madras, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, San- 
tiago, Rome, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, be- 
sides smaller "Mission Presses" in various 
stations in Africa and elsewhere. But in 
most of these places the work is being carried 
on under great difficulties. To begin with the 
financial outlay necessary for a good printing 
plant in most cases prohibits thoroughly ade- 
quate equipment. Native employees have to 
be trained for the work. In many cases a 
multiplicity of language areas which must be 
served complicate the situation, to say noth- 
ing of the problems involved in the task of 
translation. A number of our publishing 
houses on these and other accounts labor 
under discouraging burdens of debt, as wit- 
ness this sentence from a recent mission- 
ary letter : "The amount now paid year by 
year in interest (on a debt) would mean 
much to our work if employed, as we would 
like to employ it, to build up the literature we 
urgently need." In connection with the fore- 
going it may be said that the maintenance of 
some of these institutions is made possible 
only by their contracts for outside commercial 
printing. 

Types of Publications 

In endeavoring to ascertain what a publish- 
ing house on the mission field ought to be ex- 
pected to produce, it is essential that the mat- 



ter be studied in the light of the purpose of 
the whole Christian movement in non-Chris- 
tian lands. This should not be conceived 
merely as an attempt to extend the boundar- 
ies and influence of the church either in a 
particular or in a general sense. Nor should 
it even be considered as a proposition for the 
enlargement of the borders of the kingdom of 



©raaeo lessons— J^timarp jrirst Peat 

I 






mM 




GRADED LESSONS FOR CHINESE BOYS AND GIRLS 

God in any narrow apprehension of the term. 
We will do well in thinking of foreign mis- 
sionary work always to take a far larger view 
of the task and settle it once for all that we are 
in the business of spreading Christian civili- 
zation. 

Out of such a high conception of the work 
comes a quick and final answer to any inquiry 
as to the kind of books and periodicals needed 
in these lands. We ought to publish every- 
thing that will directly or indirectly lift hu- 
manity to a higher plane of living and think- 
ing. This program will include the Bible, 
hymnals, tracts, text books, Epworth League 
and Sunday-school literature, religious peri- 
odicals, and in addition, many so-called secu- 
lar publications, such as works of history, 
biography, philosophy, travel, modern science, 
standard volumes of the best prose and 
poetry, wholesome fiction, and well-edited 
periodicals, dealing with the live themes of 
the day. This is the ideal toward which we 
are moving with some success. Our publish- 
ing houses are producing in limited measure 



40 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



thg materials needed in the evangelistic and 
educational phases of the work, but even here 
there is tremendous need for improvement, 
especially in the matter of Sunday-school 
literature. We have some very good periodi- 
cals, among which may be mentioned, The In- 
dian Witness, The China Christian Advocate, 
and The Philippine Observer. These deal 
not only with denominational and general 
church interests, but also with current events, 
and frequently give their readers splendid 
articles on themes not specifically religious. 

A Concrete Example 

The following list of books recently pub- 
lished by our Madras (India) Publishing 
House, will indicate, by particular illustra- 
tion, both the earnest efforts of our mission- 
aries to create helpful literature and the 
pathetic limitations under which they labor. 
These books are: 

Christianity in Doctrine and Experience, 
by Dr. P. M. Buck. (In three languages, 
Kanarese, Tamil, and Telugu.) 

The Methodist Discipline. (In Telugu.) 

A Brief History of Methodism, by Bishop 
J. E. Robinson. (In English, Kanarese, Tamil, 
and Telugu.) 

The Standard Catechism. (In Telugu.) 

Outlines of Christian Doctrine. (In Kan- 
arese.) 

Bible Gems, by E. W. Fritchley. (In Kan- 
arese, Tamil, and Telugu.) 

This publishing house struggles along under 
a load of $75,000 debt trying to minister to a 
Christian community of 52,297, with nearly 
1,000 native workers, 15,000 Sunday-school 
pupils with their 748 officers and teachers, 
1,345 Epworth League members, and 7,634 
day school pupils, with their 543 teachers, to 
say nothing of the additional hundreds of 
thousands that constitute its legitimate con- 
stituency. The publisher in charge of this 
house says that if they could be freed of their 
debt it would be possible not only to produce 
more and better literature, but also to sup- 
port two missionaries and their families out 
of the profits from printing. 



The Place of the Press in the Foreign Field 

The progress of Christianization in foreign 
lands demands strong publishing bouses in 
every section of the world, for the various di- 
rect activities of the church cannot produce 
lasting results without Christian literature. 
For example, take just one of these activities, 
that of the Sunday-school ; without adequate 
helps for the teachers and pupils we cannot 
hope to achieve much in moulding the com- 
ing generation for the service of Christ. The 
foreign field needs and ought at once to have a 
Sunday-school literature equal to the splendid 
system now produced by our office of Sunday- 
School Publications for the schools of Amer- 
ica. If the church of to-morrow beyond the 
seas is to be in fact a vigorous church in 
spirit, knowledges and service, the childhood 
of to-day must be well trained. 

In an indirect way also the gates of oppor- 
tunity in this matter are swinging wide. In 
most fields the situation waits now for strong, 
well-capitalized publishing houses. Such 
houses could control and shape the miscel- 
laneous reading and study of uncounted mil- 
lions, not only for the present, but even for 
all future time. 

Moreover, from the business angle with 
better backing, we could duplicate in the next 
fifty or a hundred years the splendid records 
in the homeland of our Methodist Book Con- 
cern. The wonder is that there has not al- 
ready been organized some great secular cor- 
poration to capture the book business of the 
globe. For in place of the sleepy illiteracy 
prevailing everywhere to-day, we shall see 
to-morrow the whole world busy reading and 
studying, for the peoples of earth are awaken- 
ing with incalculable rapidity. 

In view of this fact measures were taken 
at the last General Conference looking to- 
ward a stronger and more definite co-opera- 
tion of the Methodist Book Concern in our 
world task. It is to be hoped that with the 
same spirit and discernment that character- 
ized the fathers, our present leaders may see 
this significant opportunity of our modern 
day. 



Study Subjects 



1. Tell the story of the translation of the 
Bible in Burma. 

2. Discuss the meaning of "Christian liter- 
ature." 

3. Point out the importance of creating a 
good Christian literature for the foreign field. 



4. What can you say of this type of work 
from the Methodist standpoint? 

5. What are some of the obstacles to the 
progress of our publishing enterprises? 

6. Point out the strategy involved in cap- 
turing the book business of the world. 



Special Suggestions to Teachers 



Lesson IX. As a first step write a rather 
full outline and check off on it the points to 
stress before the class. Summarize the work 
of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society 
by fields, and by phases of work. Prepare 
also an original study of some ' particular 
piece of work carried on by the women other 
than Korea. Visit, if possible, a meeting of 
the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, 
and study its home base. 

As an aid in arousing the class's interest 
arrange for a midweek address by a repre- 
sentative of this society, preferably a re- 
turned missionary, or secure from Miss 
Helen Sellers, Springfield, O., slides, with 
manuscript, for a stereopticon lecture on 
Women's Work, including the educational, 
medical, and evangelistic phases. In teach- 
ing, make use of maps, photographs, and 
such exhibit material as returned mission- 
aries usually have. Devote ten minutes to 
brief presentations by class members of 
"Fresh News from the Field," obtainable 
from recent copies of the Woman's Mission- 
ary Friend. World Outlook, for July, 1916 
(Korean Number), and for November, 1916 
(Woman's Progress Number), also will be 
found helpful. Consult the 1917 Report of 
the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, 
Our Work for the World, compiled by Mrs. 
William Fraser McDowell, and the Society's 
various publications. Read Eminent Mis- 
sionary Women, by Mrs. J. T. Gracey. The 
Jubilee Blue Book and other literature bear- 
ing on the five-year celebration can be se- 
cured through your Conference secretary of 
this organization. 

Lesson X. Make a careful study of your 
own Sunday school in comparison with the 
standard set for Methodist Sunday schools. 
Try to answer the question, "How can the 
church meet the peculiar Sunday-school prob- 
lems that grow out of illiteracy, poverty, and 
the lack of teachers in the foreign field?" 
Make the class see the possibilities of the 
Sunday-school movement in the Philippines 
and then pass to the general situation of 
religious education in China, India, Japan, 
Korea, and elsewhere. Especially emphasize 
the strategy of capturing childhood and youth 
in our foreign missionary efforts. Use brief 
discussions by members of the class on the 
Sunday-school opportunities in India, China, 
and other countries. Secure the fifteen-min- 
ute stereopticon lecture on "The Sunday 
Schools of the Orient," and literature on this 
subject from the Board of Sunday Schools, 
58 E. Washington Street, Chicago, 111. Read 
Philippine Islands and Their People, by 



D. C. Worcester; India, Malaysia, and the 
Philippines, by Bishop W. F. Oldham; The 
Philippines and the Far East, by Bishop H. 
C. Stuntz, and two articles in the Sunday- 
School Journal, "The Literature Problem in 
the Foreign Field" (January, 1916), and 
"Curriculum Building for the Foreign 
Field" (February, 1916); also Year Books of 
China, Japan, and India. 

Lesson XI. Study the different types of 
character among the disciples of Jesus. 
Mark the elements of universal application 
in the gospel. By reading and consultation 
with missionaries, enlarge the list of biogra- 
phies presented in this lesson. Test these 
lives from the standpoint of their ethical 
ideals and the success in their realization; 
by the standard of service to others. Trace 
the influences leading to these transforma- 
tions. Stress especially the very marked 
difference in appearance, manner, and con- 
duct between Christians and non-Christians 
in foreign fields. Lead the class to point out 
the significant elements in these characters. 
Show the far-reaching influence of just one 
of these native Christians. Point out that 
missionary effort looks toward the establish- 
ment of great native churches in all the 
fields. Discuss the stock criticisms against 
missionary activity arising from lack of in- 
formation or superficial observation on the 
part of tourists. Additional biographical 
material is to be found in the following: 
Lilavati Singh, by Florence L. Nichols, and 
Hu Yong Mi, an autobiography. World Out- 
look for April, 1916, has an interesting arti- 
cle on "A Woman Pioneer of the East." 
Stereopticon lecture for a fifteen-minute ad- 
dress on "The Life of Dr. Mary Stone," and 
another on "Simeon Bias" are available 
(Board of Foreign Missions, Board of Sun- 
day Schools, or Rev. W. H. Leech, 6728 
Jones Avenue, N. W., Seattle, Wash.). 

Lesson XII. This lesson affords an un- 
usual opportunity to enlarge the understand- 
ing of the class as to the scope and influence 
of foreign missions. Spend much of your 
own preparation in tracing out the far-reach- 
ing effects of world evangelization. Read 
the Gospels again with a view to understand- 
ing the social message of Jesus. Acquaint 
yourself with the standards of civilization 
in non-Christian countries and be able to 
show why the Christian standard is the best. 

In teaching the lesson, show by way of in- 
troduction how Jesus emphasized, not only 
the need of individual religion, but also the 
necessity of Christianizing the whole social 



41 



42 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



order. Discuss the theme by topics — re- 
forms, commerce, science, etc. Ask each 
member, the Sunday previous, to write one 
hundred words on "The World's Debt to the 
Missionary." Have a number of these read 
aloud during the class session. Consult the 
following books: Christian Missions and So- 
cial Progress, by James Dennis; The Social 
Aspect of Foreign Missions, by W. H. # P. 
Paunce; Some By-Products of Christian Mis- 
sions, by I. T. Headland; South American 
Neighbors, by Bishop Homer C. Stuntz. 
Read also World Outlook (December, 1916). 

Lesson XIII. This is the last lesson in the 
course. Therefore review the previous les- 
sons in preparation for it. Enlarge your 
fund of facts on the World Program by read- 
ing the supplementary literature furnished 
by the Board of Foreign. Missions. Make a 
concise list of the important elements in the 
World Program and be able to give good rea- 
sons for their presence there. Get clearly in 
mind the official character of this great un- 
dertaking and trace the steps in the forma- 
tion of the plan from the General Conference 
action to the final adoption by the Board of 
Foreign Missions. Make or have made a sur- 
vey of the offerings in your church showing 
the per capita giving for foreign missions by 
the Sunday school and by the church. Trace 



the growth or decline of such giving in the 
past five years. Compare the present giving 
in your church and Sunday school with the 
ideal of fifty cents a member per month from 
every person in Methodism. Use Methodist 
Year Book for 1918 and your Annual Con- 
ference Minutes in making this survey. Call 
upon one of the members of the class to sum- 
marize the educational features of the World 
Program, another, the financial plans, and 
another, the suggestions for developing the 
prayer life of the church. This is an oppor- 
tune time to connect your class in a very 
real way with the task of world evangelism. 
Therefore ask the members to undertake the 
support of a special worker or some specific 
work in the foreign field. Get into communi- 
cation with the Missionary Education De- 
partment of the Board of Sunday Schools 
(representing not only this board but also 
the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions), 
58 E. Washington Street, Chicago, 111., as 
soon as you can, that you may secure from 
this source several definite propositions and 
be able to present one of them on that day. 
Secure Dr. Mott's address before the Board 
of Foreign Missions, and other Centenary 
literature from the Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York. Read 
World Outlook for June, 1916, and Novem- 
ber, 1917. 



LESSON IX 



WOMEN'S WORK FOR WOMEN 

"And many women were there beholding from afar, who had followed Jesus 
from Galilee, ministering unto him." 

The Pear Flower School 



We had been traveling nearly all day across 
the Korea Strait with a small group of pas- 
sengers including a Swedish diplomat with 
his secretary and family, the representative 
of a great Chicago department store, and 
numerous Japanese, on our way from Shimo- 
noseki, Japan, to Fusan, Korea. The trip 
was uneventful except that in the afternoon 
we were called on deck to view the spot where 
Admiral Togo sank the Russian fleet during 
the great war between the two empires. To- 
ward evening we began to discern the dim 
outlines of land on the distant horizon, but it 
was quite dark before the little lights pierc- 
ing the blackness ahead told us we were ap- 
proaching the wharf of the ancient city of 
Fusan. Who can describe his first contact 
with this mysterious "Land of the Morning 
Calm" ? Here were queer little low shops and 
winding streets, down which came ghostly fig- 
ures wearing strange, diminutive stove-pipe 
hats and conversing in an unknown tongue. 
We were at last in Korea, the Hermit na- 
tion, the land of spirits and haunting witch- 
ery. As we walked from the boat and out into 
the darkness, in imagination we seemed to 
hear the tree spirits whispering together and 
the groanings of discontented devil spirits, 
while overhead vast droves of goblins, guar- 
dians of the boundless sea and the everlasting 
hills, seemed to be sweeping by on the clouds. 
But as we approached the railway station the 
scenes of by-gone centuries and the mood of 
elfish enchantment gave place quickly to 
a sudden view of modern life, for the through 
train for Mukden was awaiting us, with its 
up-to-date sleeping cars and obsequious Jap- 
anese porters. Soon we were speeding north, 
our locomotive shrieking defiance to the mil- 
lions of devil spirits and goblins who, native 
traditions says, inhabit these bare Korean 
hills. 

An Annual Conference in Session 

Arriving in Seoul it was our good fortune 
to find the Methodist Annual Conference in 



session at the First Church of that city, and 
here a novel sight was presented to our eyes. 
The Korean preachers filled one side of the 
auditorium, the American men missionaries 
and the representatives of the Woman's For- 
eign Missionary Society the other, while in 
the chair was the venerable bishop of Japan 
and Korea, with the American and Korean 
secretaries nearby. The morning session had 
begun and a casual visitor might have won- 
dered what kind of a meeting was being held 
until he heard the bishop's "Let us pass to. 
the fourteenth question, — 'Was the character 
of each preacher examined?'" This would 
have settled his doubt once for all. It was an 
annual conference — one of the one hundred 
and fifty-eight conferences and missions of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church now repre- 
sented in every clime under the sun, with fol- 
lowers of the greatest diversity of color, dress, 
and language. 

The fervent prayers and the hearty singing 
of familiar tunes, though the words are 
strange, added to our conviction that these 
people are real Methodists who have caught 
the spirit and plan of Wesley himself. The fact 
is that the zeal of these Christians in some re- 
spects surpasses our own, for we heard the 
typical incident of a group of Bible-class stu- 
dents who walked two hundred li (66 miles) 
that they might secure at the mission station 
ten days' instruction in the Word of God. each 
bringing with him enough rice for this period 
under the limitation of one meal only per day. 
Another told of the plan whereby each Chris- 
tian tithes his time as well as his money, giv- 
ing annually at least a month to the presenta- 
tion of Christ in preaching, teaching, and per- 
sonal appeal. And who ever heard before in 
any land of this .precondition to baptism, that 
the convert must first bring another to the 
Master before he himself is permitted to re- 
ceive the holy rite? 

As we come to the close of the conference 
session the announcements are made. We are 
all invited to attend the entertainment to be 



43 



44 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



given that evening by the Ewa girls. And 
who are the "Ewa girls?" To have visited 
Korea and not to have met the Ewa girls is 
to have missed one of the most important 
phases of missionary endeavor in the land. 
These girls are the students at "Ewa Hak- 
tang" — the "Pear Flower" — Collegiate and 
High School, located near First Church. This 
school was started soon after the inaugura- 
tion of Methodist work in Korea, and at 




GIRLS OF THE PEAR FLOWER SCHOOL 

once began to receive evidences of royal favor, 
for the president of the foreign office sent an 
official sign board carrying the designation, 
"Ewa Haktang," a name said to have been 
originated by the king himself. In Korea 
women are poetically spoken of as "pear 
flowers," and, therefore, his gift was one of 
beautiful significance. He also sent a ken- 
sion, or special escort soldier, whose duty it 
was to accompany Mrs. H. F. Scranton, the 
founder and head of the school, on her trips 
about the city. The presence of the kension on 
such occasions bore witness to the personal 
interest of the king in the enterprise. 

The Pear Flowers Entertain 

When we arrived at the chapel of the 
school there had already gathered a great 
crowd to hear and see these students. Over 
the platform was the program, for on an im- 
mense streamer were painted queer Korean 



characters, announcing the various numbers. 
Seated near the front were the anxious per- 
formers in their highly-colored dresses with 
very short waists and very long skirts. Their 
faces were Oriental — no doubt about that — 
and yet even a prejudiced observer that eve- 
ning must have noted something that revealed 
the touch of Christian training. The old "it- 
cannot-be-helped" look of the Far East had 
been replaced by the optimism of Christianity, 
and the old dullness of visage by the glow of 
new intellectual insight. The miracle was 
being performed before our very eyes. Chris- 
tian education was making over the young 
women of the Hermit Kingdom. Soon the en- 
tertainment began. Piano selections, solos, 
duets, recitations, not only in Korean, but in 
quaint, fascinating English, with the queer 
little drawls and accents of the Oriental 
tongue. The audience was more than enthu- 
siastic. Encore after encore bade these em- 
barrassed Ewa girls repeat their triumphs. 
Meanwhile we meditated over the meaning of 
it all — the new enlargement of individual life 
with its manifold blessings, the Christian 
homes in the days to come, the second genera- 
tion Christians trained under these future 
mothers, the new glorious Christian Korea 
that is to be. The value of Christian missions 
was that night openly demonstrated beyond 
the shadow of a question. 

The next day we met the workers of the 
miracle, the faithful, consecrated representa- 
tives of the Woman's Foreign Missionary So- 
ciety, and discovered that their task exerted 
a double influence, for it not only involved 
molding the lives of the young students at 
Ewa, but by a marvelous reaction it was 
also bringing a new joy and meaning into the 
lives of the teachers themselves. As we sat 
around the dinner table that day and heard 
from their lips the stories of these Korean 
girls and the victories of the school for the 
more abundant life, we forgot all about the 
sacrifices the missionaries were making, and 
saw only in this group the highly favored co- 
workers with God in his gigantic task of 
world redemption. Ewa Haktang now has an 
enrollment of over three hundred, besides 
nearly a hundred children in the kindergarten. 
The work, however, is severely handicapped 
for lack of room, for in Korea Methodism is 
growing very fast. A new dormitory to over- 
come the terribly crowded conditions is the 
pressing need at present. 



The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society 



Some Early History 

The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society 
was organized on March 23, 1869, in the 
chapel of Tremont Street Church, Boston, 
Mass., by Mrs. William Butler and Mrs. E. W. 



Parker, returned missionaries from India, and 
a number of Boston women. The first mis- 
sionaries to be sent out by the new Society 
were Miss Isabella Thoburn, of Ohio, and Dr. 
Clara A. Swain, of New York. These repre- 



WOMEN'S WORK FOR WOMEN 



45 



setitatives sailed for India in November, 1869, 
where the former took up her task in Luck- 
now and the latter in Bareilly. The first 
institutional work undertaken under the aus- 
pices of the new Society was the Girls' Or- 
phanage in Bareilly, India. It is interesting 
to note that the first money actually paid over 
for work in the foreign field went, May, 1869, 
to Dr. William L. Harris, at that time one of 
the secretaries of the Missionary Society, for 



1917 they gave for the various lines of work 
the sum of $1,175,75S. The Society owns 
nearly three million dollars worth of real es- 
tate in school, hospital, orphanage, and other 
properties. A wide variety of activities char- 
acterizes this movement of women in foreign 
lands, such as colleges, boarding schools, day 
schools, and kindergartens, including provision 
for industrial, medical, and evangelistic train- 
ing. A large number of hospitals, dispensaries, 




THE WOMAN S COLLEGE OF SOUTH CHINA AT FOOCHOW 



the support of a Bible reader in Moradabad, 
India. The total offerings to the Society dur- 
ing its first year amounted to $4,546.86. 

Present Scope of the Work 

The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society 
has sent out since its organization nine hun- 
dred and thirty-one missionaries, of whom 
five hundred and sixty-five are to-day ac- 
tively engaged in the work. These mission- 
aries, with native assistants, are serving in 
twelve countries embracing twenty-five an- 
nual conferences in the foreign field. This 
corps of laborers is estimated to minister to a 
constituency of 50,133 women, who are full 
members of the church, 94,000 probationers 
and 113,330 adherents, making a total of 257,- 
463, to whom they have a direct access, be- 
sides uncounted millions of non-Christian 
women open to gospel teaching in all these 
lands. Besides this specific work for women 
we must not forget the large proportions of 
this Society's ministry to children in schools, 
hospitals, and orphanages. It has, all told, 
1,474 schools in the foreign field, with a total 
enrollment of 45,500. To carry on their world 
enterprise the women of Methodism have 
given through this organization from 1870 to 
1916, a total of $18,266,955.22, while for 1916- 



orphanages, homes for widows and dependent 
women also are supported by the organiza- 
tion, and numerous Bible women and zenana 
workers are trained and directed in work 
which, in most cases, only women can carry 
on. 

This activity is the more significant when 
we reflect upon the position of women in 
many lands in which the Society is at work. 
It is an outstanding fact that only in lands 
which bear deeply the imprint of the Chris- 
tian gospel have women gained a position of 
respect and companionship and the rights of 
self-determination and initiative. In China 
the man-child is desired, but the woman-child 
is despised and often sold to the slavery of a 
household drudge. In India child-marriage 
and child-widowhood, seclusion in zenanas, 
and the attitude of the religions have for 
centuries beclouded the life of women. In 
Africa the "things of sex" make woman a 
laborer and a chattel. In none is even the 
primary education of women considered at 
all necessary and women are thus cut off 
from even a limited share in the broader life 
of the community. This very desolation of 
womankind is, moreover, so hedged about by 
the barriers of social restraint that only 
women can break through and bring light 
into an uncomprehended darkness. 



46 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



Organization and Administration 

Turning now to the organization of the So- 
ciety we discover at once that it has developed 
according to principles calculated to make for 
the highest efficiency. There are two general 
departments, foreign and home, both rooting 
in a "General Executive Committee." On the 
home side are eleven "branches," each of 
which embraces a group of conferences with 
sub-divisions of conferences into districts. The 
districts once more are composed of the "aux- 
iliaries" in local churches. Thus the Society 



is a total membership of 372,673. And yet it 
is doubtful if more than one woman in every 
seven in Methodism has allied herself with 
this splendid organization. 

The Great Jubilee 

In 1919 it will be just fifty years since the 
organization of the Woman's Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society, and in celebration of this 
event, a Jubilee campaign, begun in 1914, is 
now in progress to culminate at the end of a 
five-year period with this semi-centennial. 




RECENT GRADUATES OF RULISON HIGH SCHOOL, KIUKIANG, CHINA 



knits together its home constituency down to 
the smallest unit. On the foreign side there 
are the divisions by countries into twelve sec- 
tions, each of which is organized by confer- 
ences, mission stations, and the smaller units 
of circuits, day schools, or evangelistic areas. 
Special divisions of the home work also among 
German and Swedish women and for young 
people, children, and students, are under the 
care of competent secretaries. The list of 
publications of the "Woman's Foreign Mission- 
ary Society likewise reveals a splendid strat- 
egy in the task of inspiring, informing, and 
enlisting the womanhood of Methodism in 
this great undertaking. The following period- 
icals, besides a booklet and leaflet literature, 
are regularly issued ; the Woman's Missionary 
Friend, the Frauen Missions Freund, The 
Study, and the Junior Missionary Friend. 
These four publications reach a combined cir- 
culation of 171,295. Statistics as to auxiliar- 
ies and membership reveal further interest- 
ing facts as to the strength of the home base. 
The Society now records 6,858 auxiliaries 
with a membership of 231,690, or counting the 
organization proper, with its co-operating so- 
cieties for children and young people, there 



This campaign has for its watchword, "More 
members, more missionaries, more magazines, 
more money, to be accomplished through the 
intercession of more pray-ers." More specifi- 
cally the goals which these women purpose to 
reach by 1919 are a membership of 400,000, 
an annual income of $1,600,000, a subscription 
list of 180,000 for their periodicals, and a 
force of 1,000 missionaries on the field. For 
the accomplishment of this great task the 
Society has perfected special machinery in 
connection with the regular organization and 
carefully worked out schedules of needs on 
the field and apportionments to the various 
divisions and sub-divisions of the home base. 
A special sisterhood of service, composed 
of persons wearing the decoration of the 
"Order of the Golden Harvest," is pro- 
vided for those members of the Society who 
fulfill certain requirements of co-operation in 
the five-year campaign. A "League of Inter- 
cessors" is evidence that the spiritual mo- 
tive in the great undertaking has not been 
overlooked. Already the success of the three 
years passed indicates that these consecrated 
women will bring the enterprise to the de- 
sired conclusion by the year 1919. 



1. Examples of their work in Seoul and 
elsewhere in Korea. 

2. A brief resume of historical facts in con- 
nection with the "Woman's Foreign Mission- 
ary Society. 



Various Phases of Women's Work 

3. The scope and variety of activity of 
this organization. 

4. Statistical comparisons showing growth 
of the Society. 

5. The plans of the "Five- Year Jubilee." 



SUNDAY SCHOOLS BEYOND THE SEAS 



47 



LESSON X 

SUNDAY SCHOOLS BEYOND THE SEAS 

"Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and thy 
sojourner that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and 
fear Jehovah your God, and observe to do all the words of this law; and that their 
children, who hare not known, may hear, and learn to fear Jehovah your God." 

Itinerating in the Philippines 



The "Prospect Club!" 

The "Prospect Club I" How typical of the 
attitude of present day young life in the 
Philippines is the very name of the organiza- 
tion. We were invited to address this club 
on our first Sunday in Manila and met that 
afternoon a fine company of young school 
teachers, students, and business men, most of 
whom could speak very good English. It was 
an alert audience, quick to appreciate the 
merit of a musical selection, a recitation, or 
an address. We in America can scarcely real- 
ize the rapid transformation that has been go- 
ing on in the life of the Philippines since the 
American occupation. Yesterday, there was 
only the easy-going Oriental lethargy of past 
centuries; to-day, the Islands are awaken- 
ing with startling rapidity to the new poli- 
tics, business, education, and religion, and the 
coming generation is fairly tingling with am- 
bition and enthusiasm. That first day in the 
Philippines and the meeting of the Prospect 
Club gave us the key to an understanding of 
the Islands' greatest need — religious educa- 
tion — and as we itinerated through Luzon 
this same need again and again was im- 
pressed upon our minds. 

Thanksgiving in Pampanga 

It was Thanksgiving morning in San Fer- 
nando, Pampanga, and we watched the na- 
tives, always ready for a festal occasion, as 
they passed by the home of the missionary, 
decked in their vari-colored garments. Here 
were two men on their way to a cock fight, 
each carrying under his arm a fowl properly 
spurred. There was a pretty young belle with 
an enormous expanse of dress sleeves. Yonder 
was an old grandmother of the days gone by, 
her lips red with the juice of the betel nut. 
Nearby the old Catholic church of Spanish 
design in the center of the square is a group 
of wonderful little Filipino children playing. 
It was a strange sight that morning to a 
traveler fresh from America. But as the 
day wore on we found that after all this 
Thanksgiving was much like those in the 
homeland. At half past ten we all made our 
way to the Methodist Church, and there with 
a company of native Christians listened to a 
Thanksgiving sermon, and sang together the 
hymns of praise. Then came the dinner. 



Some things were missing, of course, but 
these were replaced by appetizing Filipino 
dishes. The roast chicken, however, and even 
the cranberries from far-off New England 
were there. 

High School Athletics 

After dinner we crowded into the mission- 
ary's automobile and sped away to the ath- 
letic grounds, for in the Philippines, as in 
America, this holiday is the time for the cul- 
minating athletic contests of the season. 




.;- : v '""■■. 



AN ADULT BIBLE CLASS IN KOREA 

First of all that afternoon there was a stren- 
uous baseball game between the high school 
girls of San Fernando and a visiting nine. It 
was a good game with all the familiar acces- 
sories. There were pennants and yelling, 
curved balls, fouls, and slidings- to-first, 
wounded players, and the perennial trouble 
with the umpire. Finally the home team 
won, much to the gratification of the San 
Fernando "rooters." Then came an equally 
interesting game of basketball between two 
teams of young men. Volley ball, races, and 
other games followed until sunset Between 
events there was opportunity to meet some of 
the high school teachers and students, and 



48 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



thus to come in touch with the splendid edu- 
cational system of our Island possessions 
with its four hundred and fifty American and 
10,000 native teachers instructing an army 
of more than 600,000 Filipino youth. We 
realized that day how true it is that the 
"Filipinos have advanced a century in twenty 



well-educated native public school teacher. 
Here there was not only an organized Adult 
Bible class, but also several others from the 
teen-age group. One of these was being taught 
in English. Splendid organization, good dis- 
cipline, and apparently well-prepared teach- 
ers further characterized this Sunday school. 




A CHINESE CHRISTIAN SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS MEETING IN AN OLD TEMPLE 



years." Our-pubHc schools in the Islands are of 
high grade in. .ev^ry respect, and added to the 
regular courses splendid provisions are made 
for manual training and a thorough-going in- 
dustrial education. Unfortunately, however, 
the historic Roman Catholic atmosphere has 
seemed to make necessary a decided elimina- 
tion of all those elements in the educational 
system that would contribute directly to the 
moral and spiritual culture of the people. 
Hence there is even less of such influences in 
the schools of the Philippines than there is 
here in America. On this account fche de- 
mand for efficient religious education in this 
field is most imperative. 

Four Sunday Schools in a Day 

The following Sunday there was oppor- 
tunity to see how this demand is being met by 
our own denomination. It was early in the 
morning when our party of five started from 
Calumpit in a treacherous little hanka, or 
Filipino canoe, for a day with native Sunday 
schools. At Gatbuka we were just in time 
for the opening exercises and found a full 
school, most of them "on time." Our next 
stop was San Miguel, where the pupils were 
in the midst of the study of the lesson, but the 
superintendent made room for a short address 
of greeting. At Pullok we found a finely-de- 
veloped school, for the superintendent was a 



It was housed, however, like the other two 
we visited that morning, in a poor, one- 
roomed thatched chapel without provision for 
the proper separation of classes. At the close 
of the session in Pullok our party returned to 
Calumpit, where we were invited to dine with 
the native pastor, Rev. Candido Magno, a 
man of unusual personality. This was a well- 
ordered parsonage, as was indicated not 
only in the conduct of the meal but by a card 
of "Rules and Regulations" posted on the 
wall. Here was a schedule of family worship . 
with the leaders assigned for each day, also a 
daily program of duties for each member of 
the family, and a special paragraph on 
"Rules on Eating." Appended to the card 
was a list of "officials," including Brigida as 
policewoman, Andrea as treasurer, and Maria 
as secretary of the family organization. The 
careful provisions thus made by this native 
Filipino preacher for the proper training of 
his family might well serve as an example 
for many of our American homes. After din- 
ner came the fourth Sunday-school session of 
the day, held here in the parsonage. There 
was a class in the front room, another in the 
dining room, and still another in the kitchen. 
The seniors held forth on the steps, and a 
group of smaller children, with their teacher, 
were located under the house, for these na- 
tive structures are built upon high posts. In 



SUNDAY SCHOOLS BEYOND THE SEAS 



49 



spite of the inconvenient accommodations, 
however, there was a large attendance and 
unusual interest and intelligence manifested 
in the study of the lesson for that day. 

A Specialist at Work 

The following Sunday another school was 
visited at Orani, where there was a great 
rally of the forces for the regular service, 
after which an institute hour was conducted 
by representatives of the Board of Sunday 
Schools. The Sunday-school missionary of 
this board, who began his work in the fall 
of 1914, was present and conducted a ques- 
tion box on "Larger and Better Schools in 
the Philippines." The intense interest dis- 
played and the pertinent problems presented 
that day gave evidence of the efficiency of 
these native Sunday-school workers. This 
missionary, during the past three years, has 
been working on a great program of religious 
education in the Islands. He has been teach- 
ing principles and methods in the Theologi- 
cal School and in the Women's Bible Train- 
ing School in Manila. He has conducted in- 
stitutes throughout the territory. He has re- 



organized old Sunday schools and planted new 
ones. Records and reports have been sys- 
tematized. Teacher training and adult Bible 
class work have been promoted. Besides 
these activities much time has been given to 
translating and improving the Sunday-school 
literature. 

During the past three years here in the 
Philippines there has been an increase of 
9,677 in Sunday-school enrollment, a figure 
representing nearly one-half of the total 
Methodist enrollment of 23,545. There has 
also been a net gain of nearly one hundred 
schools since this specialist began his work. 
In teacher training it is significant that there 
are to-day 510 officers and teachers in our 
Sunday schools in the Philippines regularly 
enrolled in teacher training classes, besides 
280 registered for like training by corre- 
spondence. It is also highly significant that 
last year (1917), more than 3,500 native Sun- 
day-school scholars joined the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. Similar increases in adult 
work and other phases of the movement point 
the way to the large success possible through 
this method in foreign mission fields. 



The Sunday School Situation in Foreign Lands 



The Strategic Value of the Institution 

It has frequently been said that "the Sun- 
day school is the hope of the church." Gen- 
erally the statement has been made with our 
own country in mind, but it applies with even 
more force to the foreign mission field. Mis- 
sionaries quite generally have recognized this 
fact in theory and to the extent of their time 
and ability, in practice. Hence religious edu- 
cation has been provided in a measure in day 
and boarding schools in every field, but the 
crying need is that this matter should become 
one of first importance and that specialized 
religious training in accordance with modern 
methods should be available in every for- 
eign field. The non-Christian world with its 
hundreds of millions trained in strange be- 
liefs, customs, and prejudices, presents no 
easy problem when one is thinking of its re- 
demption, but if we can capture the coming 
generations of these lands before their lives 
and characters have become hardened in the 
ways of heathenism and train them carefully 
in the principles of Christ we shall have 
presently an army of Christian workers intel- 
ligently fitted for the task who will bring the 
reign of Christ nearer by multiplied centuries 
than would any program that slighted this 
unfolding life. 

Types of Sunday Schools 

There are to-day 7,440 Sunday schools with 
an enrollment of 346,793 in the foreign mis- 
sion fields of the church. Very many of the 



7,440 scarcely deserve the name of "schools," 
for they totally lack equipment and in many 
cases housing and a corps of teachers, to say 
nothing of literature and organization. They 
are just mass meetings of children. 

In general there are three types of schools 
in mission lands. There are fairly good-sized 
schools of more than ordinary efficiency in 
the large cities and mission centers, as noted 
above. These have the advantage of large 
staffs of workers from whom to draw their 
teachers and officers. Another type is repre- 
sented by those schools connected with day 
or boarding schools. The same teachers in 
this case frequently have charge of both the 
Sunday school and the week-day school work. 
Then there are a multitude of village and 
rural schools without even the rudimentary 
advantages necessary to minister to the mil- 
lions of children that surround them. 

Conditions and Needs 

One of the oldest and most respected mis- 
sionaries of the church has declared that, the 
Sunday school has been the most neglected 
phase of missionary work. It is not strange, 
however, in view of the stress of urgent duties 
and the manifold burdens on our mission- 
aries, that all phases of missionary work have 
not been equally developed. The statement, 
therefore, does not necessarily imply a failure 
to understand the value of the institution or 
reflect upon the interest of the workers. 

A study of the Sunday schools themselves 



50 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



also reveals imperative needs if we are to 
succeed in training the boys and girls as well 
as the young people and adults in the things 
of Christ and his kingdom. There is a call 
for adequate housing and the fundamentals 
of equipment almost everywhere. There is a 
most discouraging lack of workers, and where 
we do have natives to take charge of schools 
in most instances they are without training. 
Adequate organization, too, is a thing un- 
known in the majority of village and rural 
schools. Literature of a modern type, built 
upon accepted principles of teaching, is want- 
ing in almost every country. In just a word, 
the foreign field requires the same provisions 




A BUDDHIST SUNDAY SCHOOL PICTURE CAED 

for religious education that we now enjoy 
throughout our own country, and needs them 
so imperatively that to fail here is to sacri- 
fice the future in irreparable fashion. 

Worthy Advances 

The new Sunday-school movement in for- 
eign fields is now well under way. After the 
General Conference of 1912 and in view of the 
provision made by that conference whereby 
ten per cent, of the missionary offerings taken 
in the Sunday schools of Methodism was to 
come to the Board of Sunday Schools to carry 
on missionary work, a "Foreign Department" 
was organized under this board for the spe- 
cial supervision of the Sunday schools in the 



foreign fields committed to its care by the 
discipline of the church. To-day the Board of 
Sunday schools is furnishing free grants of 
Sunday-school literature to thirty-four con- 
ferences and missions and is supporting and 
directing the work of twenty native and 
American special Sunday-school workers in 
the foreign field. The work of the latter em- 
braces the general supervision of Sunday- 
school activities in districts and conferences, 
instruction in principles and methods in theo- 
logical and training schools, the holding of in- 
stitutes, the creation of lesson helps, the visita- 
tion of individual schools, and their reorgani- 
zation, the organization of new schools, and 
other similar efforts. Gains both in numbers 
and quality of work have marked every field 
in which the Board of Sunday Schools has a 
representative. In 1915 reports from eight of 
them showed a gain of 186 new schools and 
8,681 in enrollment. In Hinghwa we had an 
increase of 91 new schools and 4,386 pupils, 
and in Foochow there was a gain of 64 schools 
with an eighty per cent, increase in teachers 
and a forty-four per cent, increase in pupils 
in three years. In view of these and like en- 
couraging reports from other fields it is safe 
to say that if the churches and Sunday schools 
of the homeland would sufficiently increase 
their gifts for this work we could easily 
double both the number of schools and schol- 
ars and multiply manyfold within the next 
ten years the efficiency of the schools already 
existing. 

Looking to the Future 

It is cause for congratulation that already 
the Curriculum Committee of the Board of 
Sunday Schools has appointed a sub-commit- 
tee on literature for the foreign field. The 
members of this sub-committee have had sev- 
eral meetings and are planning a thorough 
study of the various fields and hearty co- 
operation with missionary forces looking to- 
ward the creation of a high grade Sunday- 
school literature for the different countries 
in all the various languages and dialects. 
Likewise the proposal of larger co-operation 
on the part of the Methodist Book Concern in 
the foreign missionary enterprise brings fine 
encouragement in this matter. Urgent re- 
quests for Sunday-school specialists for field 
work and for instruction in educational in- 
stitutions, and the calls for larger grants 
for lesson helps and teacher-training liter- 
ature indicate the vigor of the new movement 
for religious education in these lands. These 
demands must be met adequately within the 
next few years if we are to capture and train 
the coming generation in these fields. Local 
Sunday schools, organized classes, and indi- 
viduals here at home can greatly assist in this 
Important tasli by sending their surplus lit- 



NEW LIVES FOR OLD 



51 



erature material to our foreign fields, by un- 
dertaking the support of Sunday-school mis- 



sionary specialists, and especially by increas- 
ing their Sunday-school missionary offering. 



1. Educational conditions in the Philip- 
pines and the consequent need of the Sunday 
school. 

2. Sunday-school needs in other fields. 

3. Types and conditions of Sunday schools 
in foreign lands. 



Outstanding Aspects 

4. Recent significant advances in the Phil- 
ippine Islands and elsewhere. 

5. The demands of the future in religious 
education beyond the seas. 

6. Opportunities for helping to meet these 
•demands. 



LESSON XI 



NEW LIVES FOR OLD 

"Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are 
passed away; oehold, they are oecome new." 

A Group of Native Christians 



The final test of Christianity is always to 
be found in life, whether we are seeking to 
ascertain its value in the individual or in the 
social order. Therefore we have selected five 
living native Methodists from different sec- 
tions of the world that we may make a study 
of the transforming power of our faith as re- 
vealed in a few brief glimpses into their 
biographies. 

Kaluwashi of Africa 

In the very heart of pagan Africa lives 
Kaluwashi, the Christian. One gets a very 
vivid sense of the meaning of that word 
"pagan" in view of a paragraph from an 
American missionary's letter dated "Ka- 
bonga, June 13, 1917," which runs as follows : 

"The government official here told us of the 
cannibals that occupy the country to the 
north, the northeast, and east of here. A lit- 
tle investigation on his part, in the houses of 
a village that he visited the other week, re- 
vealed to him enough human bones to erect 
fifty skeletons. And this is seven degrees 
south of the equator, three hundred miles 
west of Lake Tanganyika, and almost ex- 
actly midway between the two oceans — truly 
the heart of Africa." 

And who is Kaluwashi? He is a member 
of the Baluba tribe and was at one time a 
slave with about ten thousand others who 
were enticed away from their homes in the 
interior to the west coast. Here he came 
into contact with the missionaries and was 
converted. After his return from the west 
coast with a large number of other Baluba 
people he became much concerned about his 
tribe and since has walked back and forth 
from the coast to the interior, a total distance 
of 5,000 miles, in his endeavors to secure a 
missionary for them. His efforts and his 
prayers are now being answered, for a mis- 



sionary is on the way to Central Africa for 
the new Kabonga station. They call him 
"Kaluwashi's missionary." The chief of this 
Baluba tribe has greatly aided in building a 
mission house, and the people are very cor- 
dial to the new movement, as is evidenced by 
this quotation in reference to the beginning 
of the project, "To-day one hundred and 
twenty-five women came out with their hoes 
and cleared the building spot and path; to- 
morrow they will come and finish that part 
of the task." In this section of Luba Land 
there is no Protestant missionary located 
within an area of five hundred miles square, 
so the humble Kaluwashi has been the means 
of opening up an entirely new field for Chris- 
tian activity. 

Shie Maiyee of China 

Meet next the most illustrious woman of 
China — Shie Maiyee, or, as she is better 
known, Dr. Mary Stone, of Kiukiang. Dr. 
Stone was the daughter of our first native 
preacher in the Ceneral China region. Her 
mother was a teacher in a day school for 
girls. As soon as Mary was born these 
godly parents consecrated her to Christ and 
determined that her feet should never be 
bound. She was thus the first girl in Central 
China to grow up with normal feet. She at- 
tended the mission school at Kiukiang, and 
at the age of nineteen crossed the Pacific 
with another Chinese girl, Ida Kahn, to com- 
plete her education. The missionary in 
charge of the girls on this trip was asked by 
an American why they looked so different 
from the Chinese he had ordinarily seen, to 
which Miss Howe made this terse reply, "All 
the difference between a Christian and a 
heathen. These girls are Christians." The 
two Chinese girls entered the medical depart- 
ment of Michigan University soon after their 



52 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



arrival in this country. Graduating with 
honors in 1896 from this institution, Mary- 
Stone afterward took graduate work in the 
city of Chicago. Returning to China later 
she gave herself to her life task of healing 
her own. people, and in 1900 her hospital, the 
Elizabeth Skelton Danforth Hospital at Kiu- 
kiang, was built. Early in 1909 she gradu- 
ated her first class of nurses. Dr. Stone has 
had signal success and her fame has spread 
for hundreds of miles up and down the 
Yangste. On one occasion she removed a 
fifty-two pound tumor from a diminutive 
Chinese- woman and sent her pa- 
tient home thoroughly well. Dr. 
Stone's comment was, "We did 
our work prayerfully and the 
Lord gave us success." 

We breakfasted one beautiful 
June morning with this remark- 
able woman in her own home in 
Kiukiang. During the course of 
the meal she modestly told of the 
work of the previous year. With 
her internes and nurses she had 
treated 27,000 cases during the 
twelvemonth. After breakfast 
they took us up the stairs of the 
hospital to a little back room, 
where we learned a fundamental 
secret connected with the efficient 
life of China's little doctor 
woman. It was her mother's 
room, and on the table lay a worn 
Bible. Like Wesley this godly 
mother has this secret retreat 
where she daily communes with 
her heavenly Father. Thus we reveal a strong 
sidelight on the character and work of Shie 
Maiyee when we say simply, "She has a Chris- 
tian mother." 

Zabardast Kahn of India 

Once a Mohammedan, now a Christian, Za- 
bardast Kahn (later Rev. H. Millicans), is 
the oldest Methodist in India. His life is 
filled with the most thrilling events from the 
date of his birth in 1829. He is descended 
from one of the Afghan tribes on the frontier 
of Northern India and was one of a family of 
five. In 1834 came the great famine of which 
he says, "They used to peel the bark, and 
scrape off the leaves of some trees for their 
food ; they also dug up nests of ants and col- 
lected the contents to pacify their hunger. 
It is very shocking to describe, but, alas ! peo- 
ple often roasted their own children for food." 
Surely Zabardast Kahn ought to know the 
things of which he writes, for those terrible 
months cost him his own mother. Such was 
the tragedy of his early years. As he grew 
up he attended both the government and mis- 
sion schools and finally became an English 




ZABARDAST KAHN 



teacher. In 1855 his brother was baptized in 
the Fatehgarh Presbyterian Church and Za- 
bardast was congratulated by many friends 
and relatives that he still remained true to 
the Moslem faith. "But," he says, "the Holy 
Ghost had commenced shining in my heart, 
showing me that I was a sinner." After 
many long, lonely spiritual struggles he at 
last yielded to his conscience and became an 
avowed Christian. 

But there were to be still other tragedies 
in this eventful life. In 1857 the Indian Mu- 
tiny broke out and the young preacher with 
other Christians was almost in 
daily danger at the hands of 
fanatical Moslems. Again and 
again in his flight he narrowly es- 
caped death. He became sep- 
arated from his wife, and his 
child was killed by a cobra. For 
seven months he was employed 
to watch some fields of corn and 
subsisted on the parched grain 
with a little curd, and, now and 
then, a potato. After the rebel- 
lion had subsided he ventured to 
go back to his old home at Fur- 
ruckabad, where there was a glad 
reunion with his grandmother 
and his wife, who had returned 
from Delhi. Soon afterward he 
secured a position as head clerk 
of the military police at Fateh- 
garh, and all went well for a 
while until the non-Christians 
among his fellow employes set up 
a plot accusing him of the 
theft of government funds. After several 
months of weary suffering he was at last al- 
together acquitted", reinstated, and trans- 
ferred to Cawnpore. Here he served faith- 
fully for twenty-five years. Since 1884 he 
has been receiving a pension from the govern- 
ment and has given himself entirely to the 
medical relief of the poor. 

Surgeon-General Dr. J. W. Walker says of 
his dispensary work, "Relief was given to 
4,623 cases of sickness at the dispensary dur- 
ing the year, and I have much pleasure in 
acknowledging the utility of Mr. Millican's 
(Zabardast Kahn's) labor." 

Zabardast Kahn, when we met him that 
day in the Methodist Church at Cawnpore, 
was an old, old man, almost helpless in his 
blindness, but he still holds to the watchword 
of his eventful life, "Auxilium Ab Alto," — 
"Help from on High."i 

Marcella Cynn of Korea 

It was just after luncheon at the Ewa 
School when a group of girls called us into 



'Since the above biography was written word has come from 
India that Zabardast Kahn has just died. 



NEW LIVES FOR OLD 



53 



the reception room k> see the results of "the 
sacrifice meeting." There on the floor were 
shoes, umbrellas, silk waists, and skirts of 
brilliant hues, pencils, jewelry — a great col- 
lection of treasures. And what was "the sac- 
rifice meeting"? Ask Marcella Cynn, for she 
was the leader in the enterprise. The native 
pastor of the First Church, Seoul, preached 
one morning on self-sacrifice, pointing out 
that one could not be a true Christian without 
this spirit. Then in a very practical way he 
referred to their debt of four hundred yen 
($200), and said that the church members 
ought to sacrifice and pay the debt. The Ewa 
girls were there that Sunday, and like all 
Koreans, took the gospel literally and be- 
lieved the preacher. When they returned to 
the school building, one and then another 
asked, "What can we do?" for the girls in 
this institution are mostly very poor in this 
world's goods. 

Marcella Cynn, their acknowledged leader, 
quaintly tells of this unusual meeting in the 
following personal letter : "One Sunday our 
new minister announced that we owed about 
four hundred yen to the former minister, and 
we had to pay it back to him. Ewa girls, as 
they heard this announcement, felt ashamed 
before the Lord, thinking they are part of the 
church members and it is partly owed by 
them who received infinite blessings from the 
heavenly Father. So they gathered together 
in a room to reason what to do for it. They 
thought none was too good to give for the 
Lord, so finally they just poured out their 
boxes, many of them even what they needed 
so badly. Especially almost all the silk 
dresses were given up until they almost dis- 
appeared from Ewa School. Some poor girls 
brought even costless things and what they 
were using, like soap, pencil, ink bottles, 
shoes, ribbons. It seemed like a great revival 
meeting." Marcella Cynn is one of a group 
of three constituting the first graduating 
class of the only woman's college in Korea. 

Simeon Bias of the Philippines 

Said Bishop Oldham at a session of the 
Philippine Islands Conference when the late 
Dr. A. B. Leonard was their guest, as he in- 
troduced old Simeon Bias, "Meet one of the 
greatest laymen in Methodism." This man 
is now slaty-five years of age, but is still op- 
timistic, well preserved, faithful in the Mas- 



ter's work. What a change has come over 
his life! Only a few years ago he was one 
of the greatest promoters of cock-fighting in 
the Islands. He owned two cock pits, upon 
each of which he was making from six to ten 
thousand dollars a year. Gambling was the 
alpha and omega of his existence until one 
day in driving his carriage past a Methodist 
open-air meeting his attention was arrested 
by the first Protestant sermon he had ever 
heard. He became interested and asked the 
missionary to hold a similar meeting on the 
grounds of his home. Soon his interest be- 




METHODIST MINISTERS OF THE NORTH INDIA 

CONFERENCE WHO HAVE SEEN LONG 

SERVICE 

came more personal and vital until at last he 
was converted and finally abandoned his cock 
pits altogether. 

He now operates a fishery from which he 
derives an even larger income than he real- 
ized in his old gambling days. He is also ren- 
dering signal service to the church. For ex- 
ample, for several years he was in charge of 
the missionary work of Batan Province and 
refused all compensation for his services. Al- 
ready he has built two churches and is inter- 
ested in other projects of the same kind. The 
leaders of the church in the Philip] 'ines have 
learned to love and trust this worthy Chris- 
tian and frequently call him into their coun- 
cils concerning the policy and welfare of the 
missionary movement. 



Some Familiar Inquiries 



Can these Natives Understand and Expe- 
rience Vital Christianity? 

We have heard so many extraordinary 
things about the peoples beyond the seas that 
many have come to regard them as mysteri- 
ous and inscrutable — different somehow from 



the rest of the human family. Essentially, how- 
ever, human nature is the same everywhere. 
We find in every land that men possess re- 
ligious instincts, a certain sense of right and 
wrong and a strong desire for deliverance 
from the evils of life. These are all close 



54 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



points of contact for the good news of our 
faith, and the encouraging response followed 
by rapid development both in character and 
life on the part of new converts gives a de- 
cidedly affirmative answer to our question. 
Of course, these Christians do not all con- 
form to one particular type of Christianity 
any more than did the disciples of Jesus him- 
self or than do the Christians in our 
home churches. The people of India are by 
nature mystical. Hence their faith develops 
along mystical lines. The Chinese have had 



run our railroads, but that young conductor 
has the complete confidence of all the officials. 
He is a Christian, a graduate of a mission 
school, and we know he is honest and capable." 
The case is not exceptional ; it is typical, not 
only of China, but of all mission lands. Every- 
where these converts, especially the gradu- 
ates of our Christian schools, are in constant 
demand as teachers, as government em- 
ployees, in business, wherever honesty, truth- 
fulness, faithfulness, and efficiency are de- 
manded. 




SHIE MAIYEE IN HER GARDEN 

centuries of training in ethical ideals and are 
always practical in their attitude. There- 
fore these elements in the gospel appeal 
strongly to them. The Japanese love the 
aesthetic element in nature and life, and Jap- 
anese Christianity feels this influence. But 
while the faith as it develops in each field 
does thus take on the distinctive color of the 
unique life of that particular region, it may 
be said that Christianity is essentially 
adapted to all men everywhere and can be 
and is clearly understood and experienced by 
them. 

Do They "Make Good?" 

But what of the tests of life? Do these 
converts give practical expression to their 
faith in life so that the world recognizes the 
worth of their religion? In the midst of a 
conversation one day with the native head 
physician of a Chinese railroad who happened 
to be a fellow passenger, the bright young na- 
tive conductor asked for our tickets. After he 
had passed on, the physician said in substance : 
"China is so full of graft that we can hardly 



Are There Not Many "Rice Christians?" 

Just because the foregoing is true there are 
some who seek to use the church in the for- 
eign field just as the unscrupulous do in the 
homeland. They enlist for what they can 
get out of the proposition in the way of per- 
sonal profit. However, it is by no means as 
easy in mission lands to accomplish this pur- 
pose as it is in America, for the missionaries 
are always on guard against this very danger, 
and the tests imposed upon converts are far 
more rigid than those of the church in Amer- 
ica. In the nature of the case, of course, 
the missionaries are occasionally deceived, 
but the "rice Christian" is the exception and 
not by any means the rule. 

Do They Not Frequently Backslide? 

It would be strange with a background of 
centuries of ignorance, superstition, and sin, 
if these new Christians did not constantly 
feel the pull of the old life more strongly 
than we with our centuries of past Christian 
history and environment could even imagine. 
Some do fall by the wayside. In our whole 
tour, however, we heard of only two such 
cases, and in one of these the person had been 
reclaimed. Of course, it is true that a trav- 
eler would be likely to hear only of the more 
prominent instances of failure, but, even so, 
would not the situation compare favorably 
with such experiences in our own country? 

Do Not Our Converts Come Largely From 
the Lower Classes? 

The answer is "Yes." But to admit this 
involves no discount for our missionary activ- 
ity, for we must remember that Jesus himself 
drew his disciples from the lower classes, 
and freely admitted that he came to save just 
such people. Our own Wesleyan movement, 
while it was guided from the very start by 
highly educated men, nevertheless, secured 
its first converts from the lower classes. 
Nearly every great religious awakening in 
the history of the world has begun with hum- 
ble people. However, there are numerous in- 
stances of high-caste Brahmans in India, offi- 
cials in China, native rulers in Africa, who 



THE LEAVEN OF CHRISTIANITY 



55 



already have responded to the Christian ap- 
peal. Moreover, the rapid advance in the so- 
cial scale of these converts drawn from the 
poor and lowly, is a tremendous apologetic 
for the missionary propaganda. Shrewd ob- 



servers, too, can see that there is a constant 
growth in the favorable reception of the Chris- 
tion appeal among those of the higher classes, 
who are beginning to see the true worth of the 
faith. 



Christian Characteristics 



1. Show how Christianity varies in type in 
different countries. 

2. Illustrate the effect of Christianity in 
the personal experiences of native converts. 

3. Illustrate the same in their lives and con- 
duct. 



4. What can you say of these lives when 
tested by the measure of their service to hu- 
manity? 

5. Discuss the bearing of Christianity upon 
the intellectual and social life of the individ- 
ual. 



LESSON XII 

THE LEAVEN OF CHRISTIANITY 

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in 
three measures of meal, till it voas all leavened" 

Christianity and the Wider Ranges of Life 



Christ came not simply to call sinners to re- 
pentance but to inaugurate a new order of 
things on earth. Hence the missionary propa- 
ganda is directed not only toward the salva- 
tion of the individual but also toward the solu- 
tion of social problems, the relief of suffering, 
the improvement of business and commercial 
relations, the betterment of governments, and 
such other objects as are involved in the estab- 
lishment of the kingdom of God upon the 
earth. 

Already in this series of lessons we have 
dealt with Christian activities of an educa- 
tional and philanthropic sort, but we come 
now to consider some of the still more ex- 
tended influences of foreign missionary en- 
deavor. In so doing we do not forget that 
numerous secular interests like governments 
and trade play a part in world redemption, 
but we are convinced that the missionaries 
never have received due credit for the service 
they have rendered in the epochal changes 
that have marked the wider ranges of modern 
world life. This is largely due to the fact 
that their influence is generally silent and in- 
direct and exercised through a period of 
years so that it is difficult to trace the effect 
immediately to its cause. Nevertheless Chris- 
tianity is the most potent of all the forces 
concerned in the "great awakenings" of 
which we are hearing so much in these days. 

Reforms 

In the field of reforms the missionary has 
always been deeply interested and practically 
engaged. Take for example the abolition of 
the awful practice of widow burning or suttee 
in India. In 1817 Bengal alone averaged two 
such burnings daily. In 1799 the first voice 



lifted in effective, protest was that of a mis- 
sionary, Dr. William Carey, who pursued his 
godly purpose of reforms so energetically that 
the terrible rite was abolished finally by the 
British government in 1830. Likewise the 
persistent denunciation of child marriage by 
the missionaries in this same country has 
forced the governmental powers to raise the 
minimum age limit for such contracts until 
it has at last reached the teen years. 

It was Dr. MacGowan, a missionary in 
Amoy, China, who, in 1874, called a meeting 
of Chinese women to protest against the cus- 
tom of foot-binding, and finally induced nine 
of them to sign a pledge that they would not 
bind the feet of their daughters. They were 
the charter members of "The Heavenly Foot 
Society," which started an agitation culminat- 
ing in a decree by the Empress Dowager in 
1902 against the cruel practice. To-day the 
custom is dying out through the length and 
breadth of that land. 

Sir H. H. Johnston, in The Opening Up of 
Africa, has tersely testified to the power of 
another missionary's influence in these words : 
"Livingstone's verbal attack on the Arab 
slave trade in Central Africa led directly to 
the extirpation of that devastating agency." 
Facts such as these could be multiplied again 
and again, for the missionary constantly is 
fighting with success against polygamy, con- 
cubinage, prostitution, infanticide, intemper- 
ance, gambling, and a host of other wrongs. 

Commerce 

It seems at first thought to be a far cry 
from preaching the gospel to the complex 
business and commercial relations of man- 
kind. There is, however, a vital indirect 



50 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



connection, and in frequent instances an im- 
mediate relationship between the two enter- 
prises. Take the case of that wonderful mis- 
sionary to Africa, Alexander Mackay, for il- 
lustration. He built a steam engine, set up a 
saw mill, manufactured candles, operated a 
forge, and practically gave to Uganda the be- 
ginnings of its life of modern manufacture 
and commerce. W. H. P. Faunce says of him 
in The Social Aspects of Foreign Missions, 
"The Uganda Railroad, nearly six hundred 
miles long, was Mackay's suggestion, as it is 
one of his monuments." 

The redemption of land and the vast indus- 
trial scheme projected by 
our missionaries in Hingh- 
wa, and the rubber planta- 
tions in Borneo, operated 
under Methodist mission- 
ary guidance, furnish sim- 
ilar instances of this larger 
helpfulness. 

In fact, careful observers 
in all these mission lands 
unite in a very high esti- 
mate of missionary influ-' 
ence in relation to commer- 
cial and industrial life. 
Bishop E. R. Hendrix, of 
the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, reports a 
remark made by a leading 
merchant in Shanghai : 
"We find that our very 
commerce in China is based 
upon the missionary. He 
precedes us into the in- 
terior and becomes our means of communi- 
cation with the natives." The late Hon. 
Charles Denby, at one time United States 
Ambassador to China, once declared that 
the fact that "commerce follows the mis- 
sionary has been indubitably proved in 
China." 

Science 

The missionary takes no mean place in the 
world of science. This striking statement, 
also from Dr. Faunce, will open the eyes of 
many to the value of numerous scientific con- 
tributions from this source: "The volcanic 
eruptions of the Hawaiian Islands were 
chronicled for half a century by American 
missionaries. The School of Tropical Science 
in London derived most of its early knowledge 
of tropical diseases and remedies from mis- 
sionary correspondence. The flora and fauna 
of Alaska were described in the publications 
of Dr. Sheldon Jackson long before our gov- 
ernment was ready to undertake such investi- 
gation. Quinine, the most useful of all drugs, 
is due to Jesuit missionaries in South Amer- 
ica." Another compelling statement comes 




DE. F. D. GAMEWELL, LEADER OF THE 
DEFENSE OF THE BRITISH LEGA- 
TION, PEKING, 1900 



from no less an authority than that great 
scientist, Dr. George J. Romanes, who gave an 
estimate of Dr. Gulick as one of the "most 
profound of living thinkers on. Darwinian 
topics." If space permitted very many simi- 
lar judgments of missionary contributions to 
science could be cited, for these representa- 
tives of Christ have added materially to our 
knowledge in exploration, map making, geog- 
raphy, geology, biology, botany, zoology, as- 
tronomy, and other sciences. Moreover, they 
have furnished the world, invaluable facts of 
historical, philosophical, sociological, psycho- 
logical, and ethical importance in connection 
with the peoples among 
whom they work. 

Diplomacy 

Mr. John W. Foster, in 
American Diplomacy and 
the Orient, mentions the 
following names of mis- 
sionaries conspicuous in 
diplomatic negotiations in 
the Far East: Dr. Robert 
Morrison, Dr. Gutzlaff, Dr. 
Peter Parker, and Dr. S. 
Wells Williams, and then 
significantly says: "These 
are cited to show what an 
important part the mis- 
sionaries have borne in the 
international relations of 
the Pacific. The instances 
might be multiplied, and a 
detailed examination of 
these relations will disclose 
that up to the middle of the last century the 
Christian missionaries were an absolute 
necessity to diplomatic intercourse." The 
first treaty that the United States made with 
China in 1S44 involved missionary participa- 
tion, and Hon. Caleb Gushing, the representa- 
tive of our nation at the time, said of Drs. E. 
C. Bridgman and Peter Parker, who assisted 
him, "they were invaluable as advisers." 
Drs. W. A. P. Martin and S. Wells Williams 
also had an important part in the Tientsin 
treaties of 1858, and to the latter was due the 
insertion of the famous "toleration clause," 
guaranteeing religious freedom both to citi- 
zens of the United States and to Chinese con- 
verts. 

It is interesting in this connection to re- 
member the important part missionaries 
played in co-operation with the official repre- 
sentatives of the various nations during the 
siege of Peking at the time of the Boxer up- 
rising in 1900. We visited the British Em- 
bassy in which the foreigners resisted the 
Boxers, and heard the whole story from an 
active participant in the defense. The mis- 
sionaries foresaw the seriousness of the situ- 



THE LEAVEN OF CHRISTIANITY 



57 



ation before the various ambassadors and 
other foreigners realized the scope of the up- 
rising. The Methodist Episcopal Mission 
therefore organized its forces and brought 
the native Christians within its own com- 
pound. Then came the outburst, and the 
Methodists with other foreigners were or- 
dered to the British embassy. There was no 
plan of defense ready and therefore our mis- 
sionary leaders were invited to follow their 
plan of organization and to enlarge its scope. 
This was done and a Methodist missionary 
was given charge of the fortification work, 
another Methodist missionary had control of 
the food resources, while still another of the 
same denomination had supervision of the 
water supply. No wonder the United States 
Ambassador, Hon. E. H. Conger, said to these 
missionaries after the relief of Peking, "With- 
out your intelligent and successful planning 
and the uncomplaining execution of the Chi- 
nese, I believe our salvation would have been 
impossible." 

Democracy 

The Scripture declares that the gospel is 
"the power of God." We come nearer the 
original meaning of the Greek when we sub- 
stitute our word "dynamite" for "power." 
And this modern word also expresses the 
truth better as the gospel works out in life, 
for wherever the missionary goes the old 
order of things is overturned and a new path 
is blazed for truth, justice,/ and human free- 
dom. Thus the Christian movement is al- 
ways paving the way for democracy. . 

Bishop Homer C. Stuntz, in his recent book, 
South American Neighbors, tells the story of 
the successful undertaking to put religious 
freedom into the constitution of Peru. Dr. 
Thomas B. Wood, a missionary of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, with a number of 
others, had prayed and worked long to bring 
about this object, and finally in November, 
1915; both houses of Congress passed a bill 
granting religious toleration in Peru. The 
bishop describes the day when the bill be- 
came the law of the land through a second 
vote of Congress, inasmuch as the president 
had refused to sign it. Two thousand Cath- 
olic women were enlisted to defeat this final 
passage, and rushed into the Congressional 
building in the midst of the deliberations 
seeking to obstruct the vote. One priest act- 
ually seized the bill from the official who was 
reading it and tore up the paper. But Con- 
gress passed the measure in spite of this law- 
lessness by a large majority, and religious 
freedom in Peru became a fact. Thus, in 
spite of the persecution and imprisonment of 
these missionaries, their preaching, teaching, 
a ad practical efforts at last bore fruit ! 

This tendency toward democracy under 



missionary influence again is strikingly il- 
lustrated in the case of recent movements in 
China. At the Nanking preliminary parlia- 
ment when Sun Yat Sen was made provisional 
president, one of the most important issues 
before that body was the proposition to make 




IMPROVEMENTS IN PUBLIC SANITATION IN YEN- 
PING, CHINA, INSPIRED BY A MISSIONARY AND 
CARRIED OUT BY CITY AUTHORITIES 

Christianity the state religion of the new re- 
public. A representative was sent from the 
parliament to one of our great Methodist 
missionary leaders to secure his advice in 
that connection. He urged against this move 
inasmuch as compulsion in such matters is 
contrary to the principle of freedom embod- 
ied in Christianity. He suggested instead the 
observance of the Sabbath day by the dele- 
gates while the parliament was in session, 
the adoption of the Christian calendar by the 
nation, and the insertion in the constitution of 
the principle of religious freedom, all of 
which were adopted and followed. The con- 
stitution of China was patterned after that 
of our own country, and when it came to the 
consideration of a form for provincial consti- 
tutions again a messenger was sent to this 
same missionary who secured a copy of the 
constitution of the State of Oklahoma, so that 
to-day the Provinces of China have their con- 
stitutions based upon that pattern. Not long 
ago the Military Governor of Szechwan 
Province in West China gave a feast for 
Bishop James W. Bashford and Dr. John F. 
Goucher, at which he declared that his prov- 
ince would adopt the plan and curriculum of 
our missionary schools for the public educa- 
tion of its sixty-eight million people. That 
two-thirds of the members of the Chinese Con- 
gress are graduates of mission schools also 
reveals in a most vivid way the direct in- 
fluence of Christian missions toward democ- 
racy. Indeed, not only in China, but in many 
lands, the leaders in self-government, popu- 
lar education, and social reform are being 
drawn from the alumni of mission schools. 



58 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



A Few Logical Conclusions 

Out of this brief discussion of the wider in- 
fluence of the missionary propaganda, certain 
conclusions must emerge in the minds of 
thinking men. 



A Reconstructed View 

It is very apparent that any narrow con- 
ception of the task will not do. We must no 
longer think of the missionary as just a 
preacher or even as just a teacher of religion. 
He is a representative of the coming king- 
dom, with a call to service as broad as hu- 




BUILDIXG A RAILBOAD IN AFRICA 

man life itself. It is his business not simply 
to hand-pick souls for the heavenly home, but 
to set about the challenging task of building 
up the earthly kingdom of our Lord and Mas- 
ter. 

The Unaccomplished Task 

Therefore the missionary enterprise will 
not be concluded even when the church shall 
have been established in every land. Mil- 
lions of individuals have not yet realized the 
meaning of Christ or given allegiance to him. 
They represent part of our unfinished work. 
Moreover, great problems in the collective life 
of the races of earth call for the continuance 
of the service already rendered in some of 
these larger spheres. We mention three of 
these. One has to do with the place of 
woman. Dr. James S. Dennis, in his excellent 
book, Christian Missions and Social Progress, 
quotes the Hindu doctrine, "We all believe in 
the sanctity of the cow and in the depravity 
of woman," and this statement represents in 
substance the Oriental attitude toward 



women. The kingdom will never fully be 
realized until such a conception is forever 
done away. Think also of the suffering and 
injustice revealed in a study of the industrial 
problem in these lands. The degradation of 
human beings in desperate toil repaid by 
wages meagre beyond imagination indicates 
another crying evil that must be remedied in 
the name of Christ. We have just begun the 
work of. training the minds of our less for- 
tunate brothers and sisters beyond the seas. 
Huge mountains of illiteracy must be leveled 
and these human beings created in the image 
of God must learn to think his thoughts after 
him. But why multiply the problems? The 
case calls for a vast program, a multitude of 
men to work at the task, tremendous re- 
sources to finance the undertaking. 

Fairer Treatment for the Missionary 

We have shown how greatly we are in- 
debted to the foreign missionary for con- 
tributions toward the world's welfare along 
many lines not always associated with his 
specific task. It is time this service was rec- 
ognized and repaid. He should be honored 
for his scientific investigations and findings, 
for his reform and relief activities, for his 
helpfulness in international relationships, and 
his efforts toward making the world a free 
world. When it comes to his assistance in 
commercial relationships the least the busi- 
ness world could do would be to help him gen- 
erously in financing his enterprise, for he is 
constantly creating new commercial oppor- 
tunities and opening up the world's material 
resources. Greater respect and larger com- 
pensation are due the missionary for actual 
service rendered. 

The Complex Future 

Our study also looks to the future with a 
world of turmoil. Who can tell what is to 
emerge with the coming years? There cer- 
tainly will be a Far Eastern problem ; there 
probably will be a Near Eastern one as well, 
and exhausted Europe will constitute still an- 
other. New history, new philosophy, new 
ethics, new economic and social science are 
to-day in the making. To-morrow will be the 
time for their application and the reconstruc- 
tion of the whole world. It is pre-eminently 
the hour of Christian opportunity and will 
tax and test the leadership and resources of 
the forces of the kingdom as never before in 
the history of the world. 



Stimulating Questions 

1. How would you define the work of a for- 3. What relation has the missionary to the 
eign missionary? business world? 

2. What can you say of the reform and re- 4. How does the task of the missionary re- 
lief efforts in the mission field? late to the progress of democracy? 



THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY 



59 



LESSON XIII 

THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY 

"7 will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters 
shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream 

dreams." 

A Historic Meeting 



For three days, about the middle of the 
month of September, 1917, one of the most 
significant meetings of Methodists since the 
days of Wesley was convened. It met within 
sound of the mighty roar of ancient Niagara, 
in the very hotel where some months before 
the delegates from Argentine, Brazil, and 
Chile discussed international questions and 
arbitrated the differences between the United 
States and Mexico. 

This particular gathering also dealt with 
world affairs and Christ's great gospel of re- 
conciliation, whereby at last the nation's mil- 
lions shall be brought to the feet of our com- 
mon God and Father. And why did these 
hundred men make the pilgrimage to Niagara, 
and why just now in the midst of an awful 
world turmoil did they consider plans of un- 
precedented vastness? It was in answer to 
the call of a mighty church as she looked 
backward over a hundred years of missionary 
endeavor and forward to the still unfinished 
task. Through her eight hundred delegates 
convened in the General Conference at Sara- 
toga Springs in 1916, that church sent forth 
this ringing utterance to all Methodism : "We 
have directed that the years 1918, 1919, be 
set aside for the Centenary celebration of the 
founding of our missionary work, and we 
would further direct that the Board of For- 
eign Missions be instructed to take such steps 
as may be necessary for the thorough organi- 
zation and enlistment of every member and 
friend of our church in the more adequate 
support of the foreign missionary enterprise, 
and especially in carrying out the features of 
the World Program, which is to be prepared 
under these instructions." It was in obedi- 
ence to this summons that the World Program 
Committee, made up of earnest laymen, bish- 
ops, secretaries, editors, missionaries, and pas- 
tors, spent three days of intense study, prayer, 
and planning, at Niagara. 

A World Statesman 

Who has not heard of John R. Mott ? There 
he stood that day as chairman and called to 
order this historic committee. Man of God, 
Christian organizer, world statesman, this 
pre-eminent leader, just back from intimate 
association with government officials and 
army officers in the warring nations of 
Europe, showed in his very look the deep con- 
cern of God himself for a world on fire. With 



the zeal and unction of Isaiah of old he sum- 
moned the church to awaken and realize the 
urgency of this critical hour. With such sen- 
tences as these hot with soul conviction he 
thrilled his hearers : "The time has come for 
us to take the prophetic vision. It is a time 
to restate our world strategy. We are living 
in an entirely new world. All Europe is in 
the melting pot. Old things are passing away 
everywhere. All things are becoming new." 
"Now abideth faith, hope, love. This confer- 
ence is built around these three words." "Mil- 
lions of Methodists- are ready to follow men 
who know the way and give evidence that 
they know it." He pointed out that in the 
midst of the instability of all things human 
there was but one enduring foundation, one 
constructive force? — Christianity. If that 
should fail all would be lost. Hence, as never 
before in the history of the world there is 
need for a mighty program of world redemp- 
tion and for unparalleled consecration on the 
part of the followers of Christ 

Two Prophets Speak 

In the spirit of this utterance then and in 
most earnest prayer these Methodist leaders 
faced their gigantic problems. Bishop Wil- 
liam F. Oldham, fresh from South America, 
came with a compelling message urging that 
democracy be made safe for the world. "If," 
he asked, "democracies find their centers in 
God and their cement in the Divine, what kind 
of nations will result?" With telling illustra- 
tions he showed that wherever Jesus Christ is 
preached democracies begin to appear, and 
he pleaded that by Christian example and 
teaching these democracies shall express thor- 
oughly the will of Christ for the world. Tak- 
ing South America as an example he revealed 
the manifold and pressing needs of the mis- 
sion fields of the church and the call for a 
greatly enlarged view of our work. It must 
be no longer "two cents a week and a prayer" 
in this critical hour of the world's rebirth. 

Then came that other modern prophet, 
Bishop James W. Bashford, of China. His ad- 
dress had a world sweep that shamed the nar- 
row and provincial view of foreign missions. 
He traced modern tendencies and movements 
in the homeland in a masterly way, empha- 
sizing the strategy of saving the coming gen- 
eration for Christ, and paying high tribute to 
the Board of Sunday Schools in its splendid 



60 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



work of spiritual conservation. He empha- 
sized, moreover, the need of the social mes- 
sage in our day and of a larger and more 
vital interest in the toilers. Such endeavors 
must be earnestly promoted also for the sake 
of a strong home base for the church's world- 
wide work. He then unfolded for his hearers 
the marvelous story of gospel progress in 
China, and indicated how England, Rus- 
sia, France, Germany, and Japan had each 
for one reason or another lost their largest 




DR. S. EARL TAYLOR, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY 
OF THE CENTENARY MOVEMENT 

influence with the Chinese. But America, he 
said, had the confidence of this nation in view 
of her repeated acts of unselfish interest in 
China. Hence our tremendous opportunity 
and responsibility in this particular field. 

The Fields in Review 

In accordance with a thoroughly planned 
survey, the committee sat hour after hour, 
while the great fields of the church passed in 
review. We were told the exact facts as to 
each country — the number of missionaries, 
the value of properties, the types of work, the 
accomplishments thus far, and the detailed 
needs, together with certain itemized pro- 
posals of enlargement. The whole study was 
visualized by means of maps and stereopticon 
slides, giving fresh glimpses of the progress 
of the church's efforts in every land. In ad- 
dition in each case one of the missionaries 
actually in charge of the work in that par- 
ticular field gave a trenchant summary of 
conditions and needs, answering the ques- 
tions propounded by various members of the 



committee. Who can gather up and express 
in adequate terms such a world vision of op- 
portunity and need? Hear a few of these 
pressing cries for help. "A million children 
could be enrolled in our schools in China if we 
had the buildings and teachers to care for 
them." "Thirteen hundred teachers for pri- 
mary schools are immediately demanded, and 
our colleges and theological seminaries ought 
to be greatly strengthened and adequately en- 
dowed. A permanent fund should be estab- 
lished for creating an adequate vernacular 
literature for the different language areas of 
India." "We believe that the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church could wisely spend a million dol- 
lars in the next few years in establishing 
schools, in raising the intellectual levels of 
the country (Mexico), and in introducing the 
benefits of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ." 
"There are over eight hundred languages and 
dialects in Africa, of which only one hun- 
dred and thirty have been reduced to writing. 
In this land we must continue to do as our 
missionaries have already done, reduce lan- 
guages to written form, create grammars and 
dictionaries, translate the Bible into these 
languages, teach the people to read, establish 
printing presses for the creation and circula- 
tion of a literature, build schools, hospitals, 
churches, and, in short, we must create the 
entire fabric of civilized life." "The work in 
Japan and in Korea has been understaffed 
and inadequately supported for the past ten 
years, and we believe that the proposition to 
establish forty-one churches in Korea, and to 
send out during the next five years nineteen 
new missionaries for Korea, and seventeen 
missionaries for Japan, is the lowest possible 
estimate that can be considered for the rein- 
forcement of our forces." "We believe that 
the minimum requirement (for the Philip- 
pines) will be at least $100,000 per year ad- 
ditional for the next five years." Besides 
such needs there is a call for reconstruction 
work in France, especially in behalf of the 
500,000 war orphans, for reinforcement in ed- 
ucational work in Italy, to say nothing of the 
colossal demands in connection with the 
whole problem of rebuilding the church in 
Europe after the war. 

The Church Meets the Challenge 

Staggering as was the situation thus pre- 
sented by this review of the fields, these men 
of faith determined that the church ought to 
face her duty and accept her share of world 
responsibility. They therefore passed a 
series of resolutions making certain recom- 
mendations to the Board of Foreign Missions 
in regard to a World Program. In these 
recommendations it was urged that the 
church set as its goal for the five year period 
embraced in the Centenary Campaign the col- 



THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY 



01 



lection of the sum of $40,000,000 for foreign 
missionary work. A carefully worked out 
publicity and educational campaign was also 
suggested, and the thorough organization of 
the church through episcopal areas, annual 
conferences, and superintendent's districts, 
down to the last church in Methodism, was 



teaching, as to the stewardship of life and 
prayer and possessions. The first need of the 
hour is not money but the consecration that 
lays money on the altar." In keeping with 
this deliverance a special committee was ap- 
pointed to plan for the larger development of 
the prayer life of the church and it was 




THE WORLD PROGRAM COMMITTEE IN SESSION AT NIAGARA FALLS 



stressed as one of the essential requirements 
to the success of such a gigantic enterprise. 

Nor was that part of the undertaking rep- 
resented by personal communion and sacri- 
fice forgotten. It was clearly pointed out 
that unless the whole plan were permeated 
with the spirit of Christ and worked out in 
strictest obedience to the will of God, noth- 
ing but abject failure could result. It was, 
therefore, "Resolved, that the final triumph of 
this imperial program depends upon a new 
birth within the church of New Testament 



urged "that an effort be made to enroll by 
name tens of thousands of Methodist pastors 
and people to meet daily at the throne of 
grace in intercessory prayer for the Centenary 
and its objects as represented in our World 
Program." 

Thus, with such a vision of responsibility 
and in renewed consecration and prayer, these 
delegates from every section of the church 
sent forth their careful interpretation of the 
will of God for the church in preparation for 
the new century of missionary endeavor. 



Facing Another Century 



On last November 8, Dr. John R. Mott made 
a memorable address before the members of 
the Board of Foreign Missions assembled in 
New York City. In this address he called at- 
tention to the tremendous demands of the 
hour and the unique opportunity of the church 
for the real leadership of the world. He 
pleaded for the endorsement in essentials of 
the World Program as outlined at Niagara 
Falls. Closing his masterly presentation, he 
said, "I would rather much else which I have 
said be forgotten if this might be remem- 
bered : that the history of Christianity shows 
that periods of suffering have for some rea- 
son always been great creative moments with 
God." 

Uniting the Forces 

With this high call to service as a keynote 
the members of this board spent two days of 
painstaking study of the needs of the fields 
and the resources of the church. Finally, with 



some slight modifications, the Niagara Falls 
program was adopted and an address formu- 
lated to the people of Methodism. One of the 
most significant features of the great plan 
thus indorsed is the provision for an unusual 
correlation of forces. It was decided that the 
approach to the church be in the form of a 
joint campaign by the Boards of Home and 
Foreign Missions, a proposition that a few 
days later received hearty indorsement at a 
joint meeting of these two organizations in 
the city of Philadelphia. The Board of Sun- 
day Schools at this same meeting also pledged 
its support in the form of a promise to under- 
take to raise $10,000,000 of the total askings 
for the work at home and abroad. In addi- 
tion the Epworth League Board of Control 
strongly indorsed the whole plan. Moreover 
it was decided to lay this World Program be- 
fore the Board of Bishops and also to com- 
municate these findings to the authorities of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, with 



62 



FOREIGN MISSIONARIES IN ACTION 



a view to the enlistment of their co-operation. 
Thus this great undertaking is to proceed 
with a splendid correlation of the forces of 
the church, an auspicious omen of final vic- 
tory. 

The Power of Prayer 

But while the financial campaign will loom 
large in the Centenary program <the power of 
prayer will not be overlooked. Already before 
any official call for increased offerings was 
presented to the church the organization 
known as "The Fellowship of Intercession" 
had begun to enroll members. The objects of 
this important Fellowship are stated briefly, 
but their reach is beyond all human calcula- 
tion. They are : "That all the leaders of the 
campaign may be chosen of God and em- 
powered for service; that the plans may be 
inaugurated and carried through in obedience 
to the will of God ; that the financial appeal 
may be made in a spirit and the money se- 
cured by methods that will enrich the life of 
the church, and inspire it with new faith and 
courage; that the Centenary Campaign may 
mark a turning point in the history of Meth- 
odism and usher in a new era of spiritual 
conquest." It is most earnestly hoped that 
every man, woman, and child in Methodism 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and in every 
foreign field may be enrolled without delay in 
this great Fellowship. Blanks for this pur- 
pose may be secured from Mr. W. E. Doughty, 
the chairman, 111 Fifth Avenue, New York 
City. 

The Fields Are Ready 

A unique feature of the present program 
lies in the fact that it is not only built upon 
an exhaustive survey of the needs of every 
country but that in every section of our for- 
eign parish definite plans have already been 
carefully laid and specific enterprises de- 
termined upon for the great forward move- 
ment that is to inaugurate the new century. 
The exact number of new missionaries and of 
additional native workers required has been 
ascertained, the sites of proposed schools, 
colleges, and hospitals have been selected, and 
the main features of the larger program out- 
lined for each foreign conference. Every rep- 
resentative of the church beyond the seas 



awaits the final word from home in the form 
of increased resources to work out concretely 
these well-laid plans. Such preparation must 
command the respect and confidence of every 
Methodist in the homeland. 

Mobilizing the Resources 

Will the church measure up to such a ven- 
ture of faith? Will she learn anew the secret 
and power of prayer? Can we raise $8,000,000 
per year for a five-year period? These are the 
vital questions of the hour. Already the an- 
swer is coming from every quarter of the 
land, and that answer is an uncompromising 
affirmative. Does the sum of $40,000,000 for 
foreign fields seem visionary as a goal for the 
giving of the church during the next five 
years? Dr. W. B. Hollingshead, the great 
statistician of the church, has given us some 
very practical sidelights on the question. To- 
day the Methodist Episcopal Church is not 
giving one cent a day per member to the cause 
of world evangelization. If it did we would 
more than reach the proposed $8,000,000 per 
year. There are seventy-three churches in 
all Methodism that at present reach above the 
penny average; twenty-seven churches give 
ten cents per member per week ; and only six- 
teen contribute as much as fifty cents a month 
for each member. An average of fifty cents 
a month from every Methodist would amount 
to $21,121,812 a year for foreign missions. 

In view of these facts plans are under way 
to bring to the last church in Methodism a 
deep sense of responsibility for world re- 
demption. In this task the Sunday school is 
to take a place of strong leadership. Every 
school should be organized as a missionary 
society in accordance with General Confer- 
ence legislation, and assume its proper pro- 
portion of the $10,000,000 goal. Organized 
classes should study prayerfully the mission- 
ary problem, and, if possible, take up the sup- 
port of some worker or specific task, at home 
or abroad. The day of ten cents for ice cream 
and one penny for the support of world evan- 
gelization is past The hour has struck when 
the Sunday school is to express its vital 
Christianity by leading the church to a new 
vision of service for our Lord and Master. 
Thus there will come the dawn of a new day 
for the extension of Christ's kingdom to the 
ends of the earth. 



Glimpses of the Task 



1. The occasion of the Centenary Celebra- 
tion. 

2. The findings of the Niagara meeting. 

3. The main elements in the World Pro- 
gram. 



4. The place of the League of Intercessors. 

5. The relation of the Sunday school to the 
World Program. 

6. What it means for Christ and his King- 
dom. 



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